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IOGRAPHICALLY  REPORTED  BY  ANDREW  j.  GRAHAM  AND  CHAS.  B.  COLLAR. 


aiiiel 

AN    ORATION, 

BY    THE 

HON.    EDWARD    EVERETT, 


ON  THE  OCCASION  OF  THE 


Mention  of  the  Statue  of  Ufa.  Wrtflter,  to  j§«t*n, 


SEPTEMBER  17TH,  1859. 


NEW     YORK: 
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12  AITLKTON'S   Brn.i.iNO,  Xo.  "IS   BROADWAY. 


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THE  PULPIT  AND  ROSTRUM, 

AN    ELEGANT    SERIAL    IN     PAMPHLET    FORM, 
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THE  special  object  in  the  publication  of  this  Serial,  is  to  preserve  in  convenient 
form  the  best  thoughts  of  our  most  gifted  men,  just  as  they  come  from  their  lips  ; 
thus  retaining  their  freshness  and  personality.  Great  favor  has  already  been  shown 
the  work,  and  its  long  continuance  is  certain.  The  successive  numbers  will  be 
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EIGHT   NUMBERS   ARE   READY. 

No.  8.— EDWAED  EVERETT'S  ORATION  at  the  Inauguration  of  the  Statue 
of  Daniel  Webster,  at  Boston,  Sept.  17,  1859.  This  is  justly  regarded  as  one  of 
Mr.  Everett's  greatest  efforts. 

No.  7.— COMING  TO  CHRIST.  The  last  sermon  in  the  celebrated  Academy  of 
Music  Course.  By  Rev.  HENRY  MARTIN  SCUDDER,  M.D.,  D.D.,  Missionary  to  India. 

No.  6. — THE  TRIBUTE  TO  HUMBOLDT ;  being  the  interesting  and  scholarly 
Addresses  on  the  career  of  the  great  Cosmopolitan,  by  Hon.  GEO.  BANCROFT,  Rev. 
Dr.  THOMPSON,  Profs.  AGASSIZ,  LTEBER,  BACHE,  and  GUYOT. 

jfo.  6. — The  Great  Sermon  of  Rev.  A.  KINGMAN  NOTT  (recently  deceased),  on 
JESUS  AND  THE  RESURRECTION,  delivered  in  the  Academy  of  Music,  New 
York,  February  13,  1859. 

No.  4.— THE  PROGRESS  AND  DEMANDS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  By  the  Rev. 
WM.  H.  MILBURN  (the  blind  preacher).  With  an  interesting  Biographical  Sketch. 

No.  3. — The  eloquent  Discourse  of  Prof.  0.  M.  MITCHELL,  of  the  Cincinnati  Obser 
vatory,  on  the  GREAT  UNFINISHED  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  UNIVERSE. 

No.  2.— The  celebrated  Addresses  of  the  Rev.  HENRY  WARD  BEECHER  and  JAMES 
T.  BRADY,  Esq.,  on  MENTAL  CULTURE  FOR  WOMEN. 

No.  1.— The  Rev.  T.  L.  CUYLER'S  Sermon  on  CHRISTIAN  RECREATION  AND 
UNCHRISTIAN  AMUSEMENT. 


Numbers  are  promptly  mailed  from  the  office,  on  receipt  of  the  price. 
H,  H.  LLOYD  &  CO.,  Publishers, 

13  Appletoii'g  Building,  348  Broartway,  New  York. 


177 


DANIEL    WEBSTER. 


Oration  delivered  by  the  lion.  Edward  Everett,  on  the  occasion  of  the  dedication 
of  the  Statue  of  Mr.  Webster,  in  Boston,  Sept.  \lth,  1859. 

MAY  IT  PLEASE  YOUR  EXCELLENCY  : 

Ox  behalf  of  those  by  whose  contributions  this  statue  of  Mr. 
Webster  has  been  procured,  and  of  the  committee  intrusted  with 
the  care  of  its  erection,  it  is  my  pleasing  duty  to  return  to  you,  and 
through  you  to  the  Legislature  of  the  Commonwealth,  our  dutiful 
acknowledgments  for  the  permission  kindly  accorded  to  us,  to  place 
the  Statue  in  the  Public  Grounds.  We  feel,  sir,  that  in  allowing  this 
monumental  work  to  be  erected  in  front  of  the  Capitol  of  the  State, 
a  distinguished  honor  has  been  paid  to  the  memory  of  Mr.  Webster. 

To  you,  sir,  in  particular,  whose  influence  was  liberally  employ 
ed  to  promote  this  result,  and  whose  personal  attendance  and  par 
ticipation  have  added  so  much  to  the  interest  of  the  day,  we  are 
under  the  highest  obligations. 

To  you,  our  distinguished  guests,  and  to  you,  fellow-citizens,  of 
either  sex,  who  come  to  unite  with  us  in  rendering  these  monu 
mental  honors,  who  adorn  the  occasion  with  your  presence,  and 
cheer  us  with  your  countenance  and  favor,  we  tender  a  respectful 
and  grateful  welcome. 

To  you,  also,  Mr.  Mayor,  and  to  the  City  Council,  we  return  our 
cordial  thanks  for  your  kind  consent  to  act  on  our  behalf,  in  deliv 
ering  this  cherished  memorial  of  our  honored  fellow-citizen  into  the 
custody  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  for  your  sympathy  and  assist 
ance  in  the  duties  of  the  occasion. 

It  has  been  the  custom,  from  the  remotest  antiquity,  to  preserve 
and  to  hand  down  to  posterity,  in  bronze  and  in  marble,  the  coun 
terfeit  presentment  of  illustrious  men.  "Within  the  last  few  years 
modern  research  has  brought  to  light,  on  the  banks  of  the  Tigris, 
huge  slabs  of  alabaster,  buried  for  ages,  which  exhibit  in  relief  the 
faces  and  the  persons  of  men  who  governed  the  primeval  East  in 
the  gray  dawn  of  History.  Three  thousand  years  have  elapsed 
since  they  lived  and  reigned,  and  built  palaces,  and  fortified  cities, 
and  waged  war,  and  gained  victories,  of  which  the  trophies  are 
carved  upon  these  monumental  tablets — the  triumphal  procession, 
the  chariots  laden  with  spoil,  the  drooping  captive,  the  conquered 
monarch  in  chains, — but  the  legends  inscribed  upon  the  stone  are 
imperfectly  deciphered,  and  little  beyond  the  names  of  the  person 
ages,  and  the  most  general  tradition  of  their  exploits  is  preserved. 

269564 


178  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

In  like  manner  the  obelisks  and  the  temples  of  ancient  Egypt  arc 
covered  with  the  sculptured  images  of  whole  dynasties  of  Pharaohs 
— older  than  Moses,  older  than  Joseph — whose  titles  are  recorded 
in  the  hieroglyphics  with  which  the  granite  is  charged,  and  which 
are  gradually  yielding  up  their  long  concealed  mysteries  to  the 
sagacity  of  modern  criticism.  The  plastic  arts,  as  they  passed  into 
Hellas,  with  all  the  other  arts  which  give  grace  and  dignity  to  our 
nature,  reached  a  perfection  unknown  to  Egypt  or  Assyria;  and 
the  heroes  and  sages  of  Greece  and  Rome,  immortalized  by  the 
sculptor,  still  people  the  galleries  and  museums  of  the  modern 
world.  In  every  succeeding  age  and  in  every  country,  in  which 
the  fine  arts  have  been  cultivated,  the  respect  and  aifection  of  sur 
vivors  have  found  a  pure  and  rational  gratification  in  the  historical 
portrait  and  the  monumental  statue  of  the  honored  and  loved  in 
private  life,  and  especially  of  the  great  and  good  who  have  deserved 
WT ell  of  their  country.  Public  esteem  and  confidence  and  private 
affection,  the  gratitude  of  the  community  and  the  fond  memories 
of  the  fire-side,  have  ever  sought,  in  this  way,  to  prolong  the  sensi 
ble  existence  of  their  beloved  and  respected  objects.  What  though 
the  dear  and  honored  features  and  person,  on  which  while  living 
we  never  gazed  without  tenderness  or  veneration,  have  been  taken 
from  us — something  of  the  loveliness,  something  of  the  majesty 
abides  in  the  portrait,  the  bust,  and  the  statue.  The  heart  bereft 
of  the  living  originals  turn  to  them,  and  cold  and  silent  as  they  are, 
they  strengthen  and  animate  the  cherished  recollections  of  the 
loved,  the  honored,  and  the  lost. 

The  skill  of  the  painter  and  sculptor,  which  thus  comes  in  aid  of 
the  memory  and  imagination,  is,  in  its  highest  degree,  one  of  the 
rarest,  as  it  is  one  of  the  most  exquisite  accomplishments  within 
our  attainment,  and  in  its  perfection  as  seldom  witnessed  as  the  per 
fection  of  speech  or  of  music.  The  plastic  hand  must  be  moved 
by  the  same  ethereal  instinct  as  the  eloquent  lips  or  the  recording 
pen.  The  number  of  those  who,  in  the  language  of  Michael  Angelo, 
can  discern  the  finished  statue  in  the  heart  of  the  shapeless  block, 
and  bid  it  start  into  artistic  life — who  are  endowed  with  the  ex 
quisite  gift  of  molding  the  rigid  bronze  or  the  lifeless  marble  into 
graceful,  majestic,  and  expressive  forms — is  not  greater  than  the 
number  of  those  who  are  able,  with  equal  majesty,  grace,  and  ex 
pressiveness,  to  make  the  spiritual  essence— the  finest  shades  of 
thought  and  feeling — sensible  to  the  mind,  through  the  eye  and  the 
ear,  in  the  mysterious  embodiment  of  the  written  and  the  spoken 
word.  If  Athens  in  her  palmiest  days  had  but  one  Pericles,  she 
had  also  but  one  Phidias. 

Nor  are  these  beautiful  and  noble  arts,  by  which  the  face  and  the 
form  of  the  departed  are  preserved  to  us — calling  into  the  highest 
exercise  as  they  do  all  the  imitative  and  idealizing  powers  of  the 
painter  and  the  sculptor — the  least  instructive  of  our  teachers. 
The  portraits  and  the  statues  of  the  honored  dead  kindle  the  gener- 


DANIEL  WEBSTER.  179 

ous  ambition  of  the  youthful  aspirant  to  fame.  Themistocles 
could  not  sleep  for  the  trophies  in  the  Ceramicus;  and  when  the 
livinjr  Demosthenes,  to  whom  you,  sir  [Mr.  FeltonJ,  have  alluded, 
hyd  ceased  to  speak,  the  stony  lips  remained  to  rebuke  and  exhort 
his  degenerate  countrymen.  More  than  a  hundred  years  have 
elapsed  since  the  great  Newton  passed  awray;  but  from  age  to  age 
his  statue  by  lioubillac,  in  the  ante-chapel  of  Trinity  College,  will 
give  distinctness  to  the  conceptions  formed  of  him  by  hundreds  and 
thousands  of  ardent  youthful  spirits,  tilled  with  reverence  for  that 
transcendent  intellect,  which,  from  the  phenomena  that  lall  within 
our  limited  vision,  deduced  the  imperial  law  by  which  the  Sover 
eign  Mind  rules  the  entire  universe.  We  can  never  look  on  the 
person  of  Washington,  but  his  serene  and  noble  countenance,  per 
petuated  by  the  pencil  and  the  chisel,  is  familiar  to  far  greater  mul 
titudes  than  ever  stood  in  his  living  presence,  and  will  be  thus 
familiar  to  the  latest  generation. 

What  parent,  as  he  conducts  his  son  to  Mount  Auburn  or  to  Bun 
ker  Hill,  will  not,  as  he  pauses  before  their  monumental  statues, 
seek  to  heighten  his  reverence  for  virtue,  for  patriotism,  for  science, 
for  learning,  for  devotion  to  the  public  good,  as  he  bids  him  con 
template  the  form  of  that  grave  and  venerable  Winthrop,  who  left 
his  pleasant  home  in  England  to  come  and  found  a  new  republic  in 
this  untrodden  wilderness ;  of  that  ardent  and  intrepid  Otis,  who 
first  struck  out  the  spark  of  American  Independence ;  of  that  noble 
Adams,  its  most  eloquent  champion  on  the  floor  of  Congress ;  of 
that  martyr  Warren,  who  laid  down  his  life  in  its  defense ;  of  that 
self-taught  Bowditch,  who,  without  a  guide,  threaded  the  starry 
mazes  of  the  heavens ;  of  that  Story,  honored  at  home  and  abroad 
as  one  of  the  brightest  luminaries  of  the  law,  and  by  a  felicity,  of 
which  I  believe  there  is  no  other  example,  admirably  portrayed  in 
marble  by  his  son  ?  What  citizen  of  Boston,  as  he  accompanies 
the  stranger  around  our  streets,  guiding  him  through  our  busy 
thorough  tares,  to  our  wharfs  crowded  with  vessels  which  range 
every  sea  and  gather  the  produce  of  every  climate — up  to  the 
dome  of  this  Capitol,  which  commands  as  lovely  a  landscape  as  can 
delight  the  eye  or  gladden  the  heart,  will  not,  as  he  calls  his  atten 
tion  at  last  to  the  statues  of  Franklin  and  Webster,  exclaim — 
"  Boston  takes  pride  in  her  natural  position,  she  rejoices  in  her 
beautiful  environs,  she  is  gratelul  for  her  material  prosperity  ;  but 
richer  than  the  merchandise  stored  in  palatial  warehouses,  greener 
than  the  slopes  of  sea-girt  islets,  lovelier  than  this  encircling  pan 
orama  of  laud  and  sea,  of  field  and  hamlet,  of  lake  and  stream,  of 
garden  and  grove,  is  the  memory  of  her  sons,  native  and  adopted ; 
the  character,  services,  and  fame  of  those  who  have  benefited  and 
adorned  their  day  and  generation.  Our  children,  and  the  schools 
at  which  they  are  trained,  our  citizens,  and  the  services  they  have 
rendered; — these  are  our  jewels, — these  our  abiding  treasures." 

Yes,  your  long  rows  of  quarried  granite  may  crumble  to  the 


180  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

dust ;  the  cornfields  in  yonder  villages,  ripening  to  the  sickle,  may, 
like  the  plains  of  stricken  Lombardy,  a  few  weeks  ago,  be  kneaded 
into  bloody  clods  by  the  madding  wheels  of  artillery;  this  popu 
lous  city,  like  the  old  cities  of  Etruria  and  the  Campagna  liomana, 
may  be  desolated  by  the  pestilence  which  walketh  in  darkness, 
may  decay  with  the  lapse  of  time,  and  the  busy  mart,  which  now 
rings  with  the  joyous  din  of  trade,  become  as  lonely  and  still  as 
Carthage  or  Tyre,  as  Babylon  and  Nineveh ;  but  the  names  of  the 
great  and  good  shall  survive  the  desolation  and  the  ruin ;  the  mem 
ory  of  the  wise,  the  brave,  the  patriotic,  shall  never  perish. 
Yes,  Sparta  is  a  wheat-field  ;  a  Bavarian  prince  holds  court  at  the 
foot  of  the  Acropolis ;  the  traveling  virtuoso  digs  for  marbles  in 
the  Roman  Forum,  and  beneath  the  ruins  of  the  temple  of  Jupiter 
Capitolinus;  but  Lycurgus  and  Leonidas,  and  Miltiades  and  De 
mosthenes,  and  Cato  and  Tully  u  still  live ;"  and  HE  still  lives, 
and  all  the  great  and  good  shall  live  in  the  heart  of  ages,  while 
marble  and  bronze  shall  endure;  and  when  marble  and  bronze 
have  perished,  they  shall  "  still  live"  in  memory,  so  long  as  men 
shall  reverence  Law,  and  honor  Patriotism,  and  love  Liberty  ! 

EULOGIES    AT   THE    TIME    OF    ME.    WEBSTEE's    DECEASE. 

Seven  years,  within  a  few  weeks,  have  passed  since  he,  whose 
statue  we  inaugurate  to-day,  was  taken  from  us.  The  voice  of  re 
spectful  and  affectionate  eulogy,  which  was  uttered  in  this  vicinity 
and  city  at  the  time,  was  promptly  echoed  throughout  the  country. 
The  tribute  paid  to  his  memory,  by  friends,  neighbors,  and  fellow- 
citizens,  was  responded  to  from  the  remotest  corners  of  the  Repub 
lic,  by  those  who  never  gazed  on  his  noble  countenance,  or  listened 
to  the  deep  melody  of  his  voice.  This  city,  which  in  early  man 
hood  he  chose  for  his  home;  his  associates  in  the  honorable 
profession  of  which  he  rose  to  be  the  acknowledged  head ;  the  law 
school  of  the  neighboring  university  speaking  by  the  lips  of  one 
so  well  able  to  do  justice  to  his  legal  pre-eminence;  the  college  at 
which  he  was  educated,  and  whose  chartered  privileges  he  had  suc 
cessfully  maintained  before  the  highest  tribunal  of  the  country ; 
with  other  bodies  and  other  eulogists,  at  the  bar,  in  the  pulpit, 
and  on  the  platform,  throughout  the  Union,  in  numbers  greater,  I 
believe,  than  have  ever  spoken  on  any  other  similar  occasion,  ex 
cept  that  of  the  death  of  Washington,  joined  with  the  almost 
unanimous  press  of  the  country,  in  one  chorus  of  admiration  of 
his  talents,  recognition  of  his  patriotic  services,  and  respect  and 
affection  for  his  memory. 

Nor  have  these  offerings  been  made  at  his  tomb  alone.  Twice 
or  thrice  since  his  death,  once  within  a  few  months — the  anniver 
sary  of  his  birthday — has  called  forth,  at  the  table  of  patriotic 
festivity,  the  voice  of  fervid  eulogy  and  affectionate  commemora 
tion.  In  this  way,  and  on  these  occasions,  his  character  has  been 
delineated  by  those  best  able  to  do  justice  to  his  powers  and  attain- 


DANIEL  WEBSTER.  J^J 

ments,  to  appreciate  his  services,  to  take  the  measure,  if  I  may  so 
say,  of  his  colossal  mental  stature.  Without  going  heyond  this 
immediate  neighborhood,  and  in  no  degree  ungrateful  for  the  liber 
ality,  or  insensible  to  the  ability  with  which  he  has  been  eulogized 
in  other  parts  of  the  country,  what  need  be  said,  what  can  be  said 
in  the  hearing  of  those  who  have  listened  to  Ilillard,  to  Chief  Jus 
tice  Parker,  to  Gushing,  and  to  our  lamented  Ghoate,  whose  dis 
course  on  Mr.  Webster  at  Dartmouth  College  appears  to  me  as 
magnificent  a  eulogium  as  was  ever  pronounced  ? 

What  can  be  said  that  has  not  been  better  said  before; — what 
need  be  said  now  that  seven  added  years  in  the  political  progress 
of  the  country,  seven  years  of  respectful  and  affectionate  recollec 
tion  on  the  part  of  those  who  now  occupy  the  stage,  have  con 
firmed  his  title  to  the  large  place  which,  while  he  lived,  he  tilled  in 
the  public  mind  ?  While  he  yet  bore  a  part  in  the  councils  of  the 
Union,  he  shared  the  fate  which,  in  all  countries,  and  especially  in 
all  free  countries,  awaits  commanding  talent  and  eminent  position ; — 
which  no  great  man  in  our  history — not  Washington  himself — has 
ever  escaped  ;  which  none  can  escape,  but  those  who  are  too  feeble 
to  provoke  opposition,  too  obscure  for  jealousy.  But  now  that  he 
has  rested  for  years  in  his  honored  grave,  what  generous  nature 
is  not  pleased  to  strew  flowers  on  the  sod  ?  What  honorable  op 
ponent,  still  faithful  to  principle,  is  not  willing  that  all  in  which 
he  differed  from  him  should  be  referred,  without  bitterness,  to  the 
impartial  arbitrament  of  time  ;  and  that  all  that  he  respected  and 
loved  should  be  cordially  remembered  ?  What  public  man,  especially, 
who,  with  whatever  differences  of  judgment  of  men  or  measures,  has 
borne  on  his  own  shoulders  the  heavy  burden  of  responsibility — 
who  has  felt  how  hard  it  is,  in  the  larger  complications  of  affairs, 
at  all  times  to  meet  the  expectations  of  an  intelligent  and  watchful, 
but  impulsive  and  not  always  thoroughly  instructed  public  ;  how 
difficult  sometimes  to  satisfy  his  own  judgment — is  not  willing 
that  the  noble  qualities  and  patriotic  services  of  Webster  should 
be  honorably  recorded  in  the  book  of  the  country's  remembrance, 
and  his  statue  set  up  in  the  Pantheon  of  her  illustrious  sons  ? 

POSTHUMOUS   HONORS. 

These  posthumous  honors  lovingly  paid  to  departed  worth  are 
among  the  compensations  which  a  kind  Providence  vouchsafes  for 
the  unavoidable  conflicts  of  judgment  and  stern  collisions  of  party, 
which  make  the  political  career  always  arduous,  even  when  pur 
sued  with  the  greatest  success,  generally  precarious,  sometimes 
destructive  of  health  and  even  life.  It  is  impossible  under  free  gov 
ernments  to  prevent  the  existence  of  party ;  not  less  impossible 
that  parties  should  be  conducted  with  spirit  and  vigor  without 
more  or  less  injustice  done  and  suffered,  more  or  less  gross  un- 
charitableness  and  bitter  denunciation.  Besides,  with  the  utmost 
effort  at  impartiality,  it  is  not  within  the  competence  of  our  frail 


182  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

capacities  to  do  full  justice  at  the  time  to  a  character  of  varied  and 
towering  greatness,  engaged  in  an  active  and  responsible  political 
career.  The  truth  of  his  principles,  the  wisdom  of  his  counsels,  the 
value  of  his  services  must  be  seen  in  their  fruits,  and  the  richest 
fruits  are  not  those  of  the  most  rapid  growth.  The  wisdom  of  an 
tiquity  pronounced  that  no  one  was  to  be  deemed  happy  until  after 
death ;  not  merely  because  he  was  then  first  placed  beyond  the 
vicissitudes  of  human  fortune,  but  because  then  only  the*  rival  in 
terests,  the  discordant  judgments,  the  hostile  passions  of  cotem- 
poraries  are,  in  ordinary  cases,  no  longer  concerned  to  question  his 
merits.  Horace,  with  gross  adulation,  "sung  to  his  imperial  master, 
Augustus,  that  he  alone  of  the  great  of  the  earth  ever  received 
while  living  the  full  meed  of  praise.  All  the  other  great  bene 
factors  of  mankind,  the  inventors  of  arts,  the  destroyers  of  mon 
sters,  the  civilizers  of  states,  found  by  experience  that  unpopularity 
was  appeased  by  death  alone.* 

That  solemn  event,  which  terminates  the  material  existence,  be 
comes  by  the  sober  revisions  of  cotemporary  judgment,  aided  by 
offices  of  respectful  and  affectionate  commemoration,  the  com 
mencement  of  a  nobler  life  on  earth.  The  wakeful  eyes  are  closed, 
the  feverish  pulse  is  still,  the  tired  and  trembling  limbs  are  relieved 
from  their  labors,  and  the  aching  head  is  laid  to  rest  on  the  lap  of 
its  mother  earth,  like  a  play-worn  child  at  the  close  of  a  summer's 
day ;  but  all  that  we  honored  and  loved  in  the  living  man  begins  to 
live  again  in  a  new  and  higher  being  of  influence  and  fame.  It 
was  given  but  to  a  limited  number  to  listen  to  the  living  voice,  and 
they  can  never  listen  to  it  again ;  but  the  wise  teachings,  the  grave 
admonitions,  the  patriotic  exhortations  which  fell  from  his  tongue 
will  be  gathered  together  and  garnered  up  in  the  memory  of  mil 
lions.  The  cares,  the  toils,  the  sorrows;  the  conflicts  with  others, 
the  conflicts  of  the  fervent  spirit  with  itself;  the  sad  accidents  of 
humanity,  the  fears  of  the  brave,  the  follies  of  the  wise,  the  errors 
of  the  learned ;  all  that  dashed  the  cup  of  enjoyment  with  bitter 
drops  and  strewed  sorrowful  ashes  over  the  beauty  of  expectation 
and  promise ;  the  treacherous  friend,  the  ungenerous  rival,  the 
mean  and  malignant  foe ;  the  uncharitable  prejudice  which  with 
held  the  just  tribute  of  praise,  the  human  frailty  which  wove  sharp 
thorns  into  the  wreath  of  solid  merit ; — all  these  in  ordinary  cases 
are  buried  in  the  grave  of  the  illustrious  dead ;  while  their  brilliant 
talents,  their  deeds  of  benevolence  and  public  spirit,  their  wise  and 
eloquent  words,  the  healing  counsels,  their  generous  aflcctions,  the 
whole  man,  in  short,  whom  we  revered  and  loved  and  would  fain 
imitate,  especially  when  his  image  is  impressed  upon  our  recollec 
tions  by  the  pencil  or  the  chisel,  goes  forth  to  the  admiration  of  the 
latest  posterity.  Extinctus  amabiter  idem. 

*  Comperit  invidiam  supremo  fine,  domari  . 


DANIEL  WEBSTER.  183 

THE    OBSEQUIES    OF    MR.    CIIOATE. 

Our  city  has  lately  witnessed  a  most  beautiful  instance  of  this 
re-animating  power  of  death*  A  few  weeks  since,  we  followed 
Toward  the  tomb  the  lifeless  remains  of  our  lamented  Choate. 
Well  may  we  consecrate  a  moment  even  of  this  hour  to  him  who, 
in  that  admirable  discourse  to  which  I  have  already  alluded,  did 
such  noble  justice  to  himself  and  the  great  subject  of  his  eulogy. 
A  short  time  before  the  decease  of  our  much  honored  friend,  I  had 
seen  him  shattered  by  disease,  his  nil-persuasive  voice  faint  and 
languid,  his  beaming  eye  quenched ;  and  as  he  left  us  in  search  of 
health  in  a  foreign  clime,  a  painful  image  and  a  sad  foreboding  too 
soon  fulfilled  dwelt  upon  my  mind.  But  on  the  morning  of  the 
day  when  we  were  to  pay  the  last  sad  offices  to  our  friend,  the  23d 
of  July,  with  a  sad,  let  me  not  say  a  repining,  thought,  that  so 
much  talent,  so  much  learning,  so  much  eloquence,  so  much  wit, 
so  much  wisdom,  so  much  force  of  intellect,  so  much  kindness 
of  heart  were  taken  from  us,  an  engraved  likeness  of  him  was 
brought  to  me,  in  which  he  seemed  to  live  again.  The  shadows 
of  disease  and  suffering  had  passed  from  the  brow,  the  well-re 
membered  countenance  was  clothed  with  its  wonted  serenity, 
a  cheerful  smile  lighted  up  the  features,  genius  kindled  in  the 
eye,  persuasion  hovered  over  the  lips,  and  I  felt  as  if  I  was  going, 
not  to  his  funeral,  but  his  triumph.  "  Weep  not  for  me,"  it 
seemed  to  say,  u  but  weep  for  yourselves."  And  never  while 
he  dwelt  among  us  in  the  feeble  tabernacle  of  the  flesh ;  never 
while  the  overtasked  spirit  seemed  to  exhaust  the  delicate 
frame ;  never  as  I  had  listened  to  the  melody  of  his  living  voice, 
did  he  speak  to  my  imagination  and  heart  with  such  a  touching 
though  silent  eloquence,  as  when  we  followed  his  hearse  along  these 
streets,  that  bright  mid-summer's  noon,  up  the  via  sacra  in  front 
of  this  Capitol,  slowly  moving  to  the  solemn  beat  of  grand  dead 
marches,  as  they  swelled  from  wailing  clarion  and  muffled  drum, 
while  the  minute  guns  from  yonder  lawn  responded  to  the  passing 
bell  from  yonder  steeple.  I  then  •  understood  the  sublime  signifi 
cance  of  the  words,  which  Cicero  puts  in  the  mouth  of  Cato,  that 
the  mind,  elevated  to  the  foresight  of  posterity,  when  departing 
from  this  life,  begins  at  length  to  live;  yea,  the  sublimer  words  of 
a  greater  than  Cicero,  "  Oh, death!  where  is  thy  sting?  oh,  grave! 
where  is  thy  victory?"  And  then,  as  we  passed  the  abodes  of 
those  whom  he  knew,  and  honored,  and  loved,  and  who  had  gone 
before ;  of  Lawrence  here  on  the  left ;  of  Prescott  yonder  on  the 
right ;  this  home  where  Hancock  lived  and  AVashington  was  re 
ceived;  this  where  Lafayette  sojourned;  this  Capitol  where  his 
own  political  course  began,  and  on  which  so  many  patriotic  mem 
ories  are  concentrated,  I  felt,  not  as  if  we  were  conducting  another 
frail  and  weary  body  to  the  tomb,  but  as  if  we  were  escorting  a  noble 
brother  to  the  congenial  company  of  the  departed  great  and  good; 
and  I  was  ready  myself  to  exclaim,  "  0  prceclarum  diem,  cum  ad 


184  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

illud  divinum  animorum  concilium  ccetumque  profisciscar,  cumque 
ex  Jiac  turbo,  ct  collumone  discedam" 

THE    PEEIOD    IN   WHICH   ME.    WEBSTER    LIVED. 

It  will  not,  I  think,  be  expected  of  me  to  undertake  the  super 
fluous  task  of  narrating  in  great  detail  the  well-known  events  of 
Mr.  Webster's  life,  or  of  attempting  an  elaborate  delineation  of  that 
character  to  which  such  ample  justice  has  already  been  done  by 
master  hands.  I  deem  it  sufficient  to  say  in  general,  that,  referred 
to  all  the  standards  by  which  public  character  can  be  estimated, 
he  exhibited  in  a  rare  degree  the  qualities  of  a  truly  great  man. 

The  period  at  which  Mr.  Webster  came  forward  in  life,  and 
during  which  he  played  so  distinguished  a  part,  was  not  one  in 
which  small  men,  dependent  upon  their  own  exertions,  are  likely 
to  rise  to  a  high  place  in  public  estimation.  The  present  genera 
tion  of  young  men  are  hardly  aware  of  the  vehemence  of  the  storms 
that  shook  the  world  at  the  time  when  Mr.  Webster  became  old 
enough  to  form  the  first  childish  conceptions  of  the  nature  of  the 
events  in  progress  at  home  and  abroad.  His  recollections,  he  tells 
us  in  an  autobiographical  sketch,  went  back  to  the  year  1790 — a 
year  when  the  political  system  of  continental  Europe  was  about  to 
plunge  into  a  state  of  frightful  disintegration,  while,  under  the  new 
constitution,  the  United  States  were  commencing  an  unexampled 
career  of  prosperity  ;  Washington  just  entering  upon  the  first  Pres 
idency  of  the  new-born  Eepublic ;  the  reins  of  the  oldest  monarchy 
in  Europe  slipping,  besmeared  with  blood,  from  the  hands  of  the 
descendant  of  thirty  generations  of  kings.  The  fearful  struggle 
between  France  and  the  allied  powers  succeeded,  Avhich  strained 
the  resources  of  the  European  governments  to  their  utmost  tension. 
Armies  and  navies  were  arrayed  against  each  other  such  as  the  civ 
ilized  world  had  never  seen  before,  and  wars  waged  beyond  all  for 
mer  experience.  The  storm  passed  over  the  Continent  as  a  tornado 
passes  through  a  forest,  when  it  comes  rolling  and  roaring  from 
the  clouds,  and  prostrates  the  growth  of  centuries  in  its  path. 
England,  in  virtue  of  her  insular  position,  her  naval  power,  and 
her  free  institutions,  had  more  than  any  other  foreign  country 
weathered  the  storm ;  but  Russia  saw  the  arctic  sky  lighted  with 
the  flames  of  her  old  Muscovite  capital ;  the  shadowy  Kaisers  of 
the  House  of  Hapsburg  were  compelled  to  abdicate  the  crown  of 
the  Holy  Eoman  Empire,  and  accept  as  a  substitute  that  of  Austria ; 
Prussia,  staggering  from  Jena,  trembled  on  the  verge  of  political 
annihilation;  the  other  German  states,  Italy,  Switzerland,  Hol 
land,  and  the  Spanish  Peninsula  were  convulsed  ;  Egypt  overrun; 
Constantinople  and  the  East  threatened ;  and  in  many  of  these 
states,  institutions,  laws,  ideas,  and  manners  were  changed  as  ef 
fectually  as  dynasties.  With  the  downfall  of  Napoleon  a  partial 
reconstruction  of  the  old  forms  took  place  ;  but  the  political  genius 
of  the  continent  of  Europe  was  revolutionized. 


DANIEL  WEBSTEE.  185 

On  this  side  of  tho  Atlantic,  the  United  States,  though  studying 
an  impartial  neutrality,  were  drawn  at  first  to  some  extent  into 
the  outer  circles  of  the  terrific  maelstrom ;  but  soon  escaping,  they 
started  upon  a  career  of  national  growth  and  development,  of 
which  the  world  has  witnessed  no  other  example.  Meantime,  the 
Spanish  and  the  Portuguese  Yiceroyalties  south  of  us,  from  Mexico 
to  Cape  Horn,  asserted  their  independence,  that  Castilian  empire 
on  which  the  sun  never  set  was  dismembered,  and  the  golden  chain 
was  forever  sundered,  by  which  Columbus  had  linked  half  his  new 
found  world  to  the  throne  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella. 

Such  was  the  crowd  and  the  importance  of  the  events  in  which, 
from  his  childhood  up,  the  life  of  Mr.  Webster,  and  of  the  genera 
tion  to  which  he  belonged  was  passed,  and  I  can  with  all  sincerity 
say,  that  it  has  never  been  my  fortune,  in  Europe  or  America,  to 
hold  intercourse  with  any  person  who  seemed  to  me  to  penetrate 
further  than  he  had  done  into  the  spirit  of  the  age,  under  its 
successive  phases  of  dissolution,  chaos,  reconstruction,  and  prog 
ress.  Born  and  bred  on  the  verge  of  the  wilderness  (his  father  a 
veteran  of  those  old  French  and  Indian  wars,  in  which,  in  the 
middle  of  the  18th  century,  wild  men  came  out  of  the  woods  to 
wage  war  with  the  tomahawk  and  the  scalping-knife,  against  the 
fireside  and  the  cradle),  with  the  slenderest  opportunities  for  early 
education,  entering  life  with  scarce  the  usual  facilities  for  reading 
the  riddle  of  foreign  state-craft,  remote  from  the  scene  of  action, 
relying  upon  sources  of  information  equally  open  to  all  the  world, 
he  seemed  to  me  nevertheless,  by  the  instinct  of  a  great  capacity, 
to  have  comprehended  in  all  its  aspects  the  march  of  events  in 
Europe -and  this  country.  He  surveyed  the  agitations  of  the  age 
with  calmness,  deprecated  its  excesses,  sympathized  with  its  pro 
gressive  tendencies,  rejoiced  in  its  triumphs.  His  first  words  in 
Congress,  when  he  came  unannounced  from  his  native  hills  in 
1813,  proclaimed  his  mastery  of  the  perplexed  web  of  European 
politics,  in  which  the  United  States  were  then  but  too  deeply  en 
tangled  ;  and  from  that  time  till  his  death  I  think  we  all  felt — 
those  who  differed  from  him  as  well  as  those  who  agreed  with 
him — that  he  was  in  no  degree  below  the  standard  of  the  time ; 
that  if  Providence  had  cast  his  lot  in  the  field  where  the  great  des 
tinies  of  Europe  are  decided,  this  poor  New  Hampshire  youth 
would  have  carried  his  head  as  higk  among  the  Metternichs,  the 
Nesselrodes,  the  Hardenbergs,  the  Talleyrands,  the  Castlereaghs 
of  the  day,  and  surely  among  their  successors,  who  now  occupy 
the  stage,  as  he  did  among  his  cotemporaries  at  home. 

HIS    COTEMPOEARIES. 

Let  me  not  be  thought,  however,  in  this  remark,  to  intimate  that 
these  cotemporaries  at  home  were  second-rate  men ;  far  otherwise. 
It  has  sometimes  seemed  to  me  that,  owing  to  the  natural  reverenco 
in  which  we  hold  the  leaders  of  tho  Revolutionary  period— the 


1§6  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

heroic  age  of  the  country — and  those  of  the  constitutional  age  who 
brought  out  of  chaos  this  august  system  of  confederate  republican 
ism,  we  hardly  do  full  justice  to  the  third  period  in  our  political 
history,  which  may  be  dated  from  about  the  time  when  Mr.  Web 
ster  came  into  political  life  and  continued  through  the  first  part  of 
his  career.  The  heroes  and  sages  of  the  revolutionary  and  consti 
tutional  period  were  indeed  gone,  Washington,  Franklin,  Greene, 
Hamilton,  Morris,  Jay  slept  in  their  honored  graves.  John 
Adams,  Jefferson,  Carroll,  though  surviving,  were  withdrawn  from 
affairs.  <|  But  Madison,  who  contributed  so  much  to  the  formation 
and  adoption  of  the  constitution,  was  at  the  helm ;  Monroe  in  the 
cabinet ;  John  Quincy  Adams,  Gallatin,  and  Bayard  negotiating  in 
Europe ;  in  the  Senate  were  Rufus  King,  Christopher  Gore,  Jer 
emiah  Mason,  Giles,  Otis ;  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  Pinck- 
ney,  Clay,  Lowndes,  Cheves,  Calhoun,  Gaston,,  Forsyth,  Randolph, 
Oakley,  Pitkin,  Grosvenor ;  on  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
Marshall,  Livingston,  Story ;  at  the  bar,  Dexter,  Emmet,  Pinkney, 
and  Wirt ;  with  many  distinguished  men  not  at  that  time  in  the 
general  government,  of  whom  it  is  enough  to  name  Dewitt  Clinton 
and  Chancellor  Kent.  It  was  my  privilege  to  see  Mr.  Webster, 
associated  and  mingling  with  nearly  all  those  eminent  men,  and 
their  successors,  not  only  in  later  years,  but  in  my  own  youth, 
and  when  he  first  came  forward,  unknown  as  yet  to  the  country  at 
large,  scarcely  known  to  himself,  not  arrogant,  nor  yet  unconscious 
of  his  mighty  powers,  tied  to  a  laborious  profession  in  a  narrow  range 
of  practice,  but  glowing  with  a  generous  ambition,  and  not  afraid 
to  grapple  with  the  strongest  and  boldest  in  the  land.  The  opinion 
pronounced  of  him,  at  the  commencement  of  his  career,  by  Mr. 
Lowndes,  that  the  "  South  had  not  in  Congress  his  superior  nor 
the  North  his  equal,"  savors  in  the  form  of  expression  of  sectional 
partiality.  If  it  had  been  said,  that  neither  at  the  South  or  the 
North  had  any  public  man  risen  more  rapidly  to  a  brilliant  reputa 
tion,  no  one  I  think  would  have  denied  the  justice  of  the  remark. 
He  stood  from  the  first  the  acknowledged  equal  of  the  most  distin 
guished  of  his  associates.  In  later  years  he  acted  with  the  suc 
cessors  of  those  I  have  named,  with  Benton,  Burgess,  Edward  Liv 
ingston,  Hayne,  McDufiie,  McLean,  Sergeant,  Clayton,  Wilde, 
Storrs,  our  own  Bates,  Davis,  Gorham,  Choate,  and  others  who 
still  survive;  but  it  will  readily  be  admitted  that  he  never  sunk 
from  the  position  which  he  assumed  at  the  outset  of  his  career,  or 
stood  second  to  any  man  in  any  part  of  the  country.  \ 

THE    QUESTIONS    DISCUSSED   IN   HIS    TIME. 

If  we  now  look  for  a  moment  at  the  public  questions  with 
which  he  was  called  to  deal  in  the  course  of  his  career,  and  with 
which  he  did  deal,  in  the  most  masterly  manner,  as  they  succes 
sively  came  up,  we  shall  find  new  proofs  of  his  great  ability. 
When  he  first  came  forward  in  life,  the  two  great  belligerent 


DANIEL  WEBSTER.  187 

powers  of  Europe,  contending  with  each  other  for  the  mastery  of 
the  world,  despising  our  youthful  weakness  and  impatient  of 
our  gainful  neutrality,  in  violation  now  admitted  of  the  Law  of 
Nations,  emulated  each  other  in  the  war  waged  upon  our  com 
merce  and  the  insults  offered  to  our  Hag.  To  engage  in  a  contest 
with  both  would  have  been  madness;  the  choice  of  the  antagonist 
was  a  question  of  difficulty,  and  well  calculated  to  furnish  topics 
of  reproach  and  recrimination.  Whichever  side  you  adopted,  your 
opponent  regarded  you  as  being,  in  a  great  national  struggle,  the 
apologist  of  an  unfriendly  foreign  power,  (in  1798  the  United 
States  chose  France  for  their  enemy  ;  in  1812  Great  Britain.  War 
was  declared  against  the  latter  country  on  the  18th  of  June,  1812; 
the  Orders  in  Council,  which  were  the  immediate  cause  of  the 
war,  were  rescinded  five  days  afterward.  Such  are  the  narrow 
chances  on  which  the  Fortunes  of  States  depend  L^iJ 
/^tjrreat  questions  of  domestic  and  foreign  policy  followed  the 
close  of  war.  Of  the  former  class  were  the  restoration  of  a  cur 
rency  which  should  truly  represent  the  values  which  it  nominally 
circulated — a  result  mainly  brought  about  by  a  resolution  moved 
by  Mr.  Webster ;  the  fiscal  system  of  the  Union  and  the  best 
mode  of  connecting  the  collection,  safe-keeping,  and  disbursement 
of  the  public  funds,  with  the  commercial  wants,  and  especially 
with  the  exchanges  of  the  country ;  the  stability  of  the  manufac 
tures,  which  had  been  called  into  existence  during  the  war;  what 
can  constitutionally  be  done,  ought  anything  as  a  matter  of  policy 
to  be  done  by  Congress  to  protect  them  from  the  competition  of 
foreign  skill,  and  the  glut  of  foreign  markets ;  the  internal  com 
munications  of  the  Umon,  a  question  of  paramount  interest  before 
the  introduction  of  Railroads;  can  the  central  power  do  any 
thing — what  can  it  do — by  roads  and  canals,  to  bind  the  distant 
parts  of  the  continent  together;  the  enlargement  of- the  judicial 
system  of  the  country  to  meet  the  wants  of  the  greatly  increased 
number  of  the  States ;  the  revision  of  the  criminal  code  of  the 
United  States,  which  was  almost  exclusively  his  work;  the  ad 
ministration  of  the  public  lands  and  the  best  mode  of  filling 
with  civilized  and  Christian  homes  this  immense  domain,  the 
amplest  heritage  which  was  ever  subjected  to  the  control  of  a  free 
government;  connected  with  the  public  domain  the  relations  of 
the  civilized  and  dominant  race  to  the  aboriginal  children  of  the 
soil;  and  lastly  the  constitutional  questions  on  the  nature  of  the 
government  itself,  which  were  raised  in  that  gigantic  controversy 
on  the  interpretation  of  the  fundamental  law  itself.  These  were 
some  of  the  most  important  domestic  questions  which  occupied  the 
attention  of  Congress  and  the  country  while  Mr.  Webster  was  on 
the  stage. 

Of  questions  connected  with  Foreign  affairs  were  those  growing 
out  of  the  war,  which  was  in  progress  when  he  first  became  a 
member  of  Congress ;  then  the  various  questions  of  International 


188  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

Law,  some  of  them  as  novel  as  they  were  important,  which  had 
reference  to  the  entrance  or  the  attempted  entrance  of  so  many 
new  states  into  the  family  of  nations ;  in  Europe — Greece,  Bel 
gium,  Hungary ;  on  this  continent,  twelve  or  fourteen  new  repub 
lics,  great  and  small,  bursting  from  the  ruins  of  the  Spanish 
colonial  empire — like  a  group  of  asteroids  from  the  wreck  of  an 
exploded  planet;  the  invitation  of  .the  infant  American  Republics 
to  meet  them  in  Congress  at  Panama ;  our  commercial  relations 
with  the  British  Colonies  in  the  West  Indies  and  on  this  con 
tinent  ;  demands  of  several  European  states  for  spoliations  on  our 
commerce  during  the  wars  of  the  French  Revolution ;  our  secular 
controversy  with  England  relative  to  the  boundary  of  the  United 
States  on  the  North-Eastern  and  Pacific  frontiers ;  our  relations 
with  Mexico,  previous  to  the  war ;  the  immunity  of  the  American 
flag  upon  the  common  jurisdiction  of  the  ocean ;  and  more  im 
portant  than  all  other  questions,  foreign  or  domestic,  in  its 
influence  upon  the  general  politics  of  the  country,  the  great 
sectional  controversy — not  then  first  commenced,  but  greatly  in 
creased  in  warmth  and  urgency,  which  connected  itself  with  the 
organization  of  the  newly  acquired  Mexican  territories. 

Such  were  the  chief  questions  on  which  it  was  Mr.  Webster's 
duty  to  form  opinions ;  as  an  influential  member  of  Congress  and  a 
political  leader  to  speak  and  to  vote ;  as  a  member  of  the  Execu 
tive  Government  to  exercise  a  powerful,  over  some  of  them,  a  de 
cisive  control.  Besides  these  there  was  another  class  of  questions 
of  great  public  importance,  which  came  up  for  adjudication  in  the 
Courts  of  the  United  States,  which  he  was  called  professionally  to 
discuss.  Many  of  the  questions  of  each  class  now  referred  to  di 
vided  and  still  divide  opinion ;  excited  and  still  excite  the  feelings 
of  individuals,  of  parties,  of  sections  of  the  countrvjf  There  are 
some  of  them,  which,  in  the  course  of  a  long  life,  unaer  changing 
circumstances,  are  likely  to  be  differently  viewed  at  different  peri 
ods  by  the  same  individual.  I  am  not  here  to-day  to  rake  off  the 
warm  ashes  from  the  embers  of  controversies  which  have  spent 
their  fury  and  are  dying  away,  or  to  fan  the  fires  of  those  which 
etill  burn.  But  no  one,  I  think,  whether  he  agreed  with  Mr.  Web 
ster  or  differed  from  him  as  to  any  of  these  questions,  will  deny 
that  he  treated  them  each  and  all,  as  they  came  up  in  the  Senate, 
in  the  Courts,  or  in  negotiations  with  Foreign  powers,  in  a  broad, 
statesmanlike,  and  masterly  way.  There  were  few  who  would  not 
confess,  when  they  agreed  with  him,  that  he  had  expressed  their 
opinions  better  than  they  could  do  it  themselves ;  few,  when  they 
differed  from  him,  who  would  not  admit  that  he  had  maintained 
his  own  views  manfully,  powerfully,  and  liberally. 

HIS    CAREER    AS    A    STATESMAN. 

Such  was  the  period  in  which  Mr.  Webster  lived,  such  were  the 
associates  with  whom  he  acted,  the  questions  with  which  he  had 


DANIEL  WEBSTER.  189 

to  deal  as  statesman,  jurist,  the  head  of  an  administration  of  the 
government,  and  a  public  speaker.  Let  us  contemplate  him  for  a 
moment  in  either  capacity. 

>  "Without  passing  through  the  preliminary  stage  of  the  State  Leg- 
'islature,  and  elected  to  Congress  in  six  years  from  the  time  of  his 
admission  to  the  Superior  Court  of  New  Hampshire,  he  was,  on  his 
first  entrance  into  the  House  of  Representatives,  placed  by  Mr. 
Speaker  Clay  on  the  Committee  of  Foreign  Affairs,  and  took  rank 
forthwith  as  one  of  the  leading  statesmen  of  the  day.  His  lirst 
speech  had  reference  to  those  famous  Berlin  and  Milan  decrees  and 
Orders  in  Council,  to  which  I  have  already  alluded;  and  the  im 
pression  produced  by  it  was  such  as  to  lead  the  venerable  Chief 
Justice  Marshall  eighteen  years  afterward,  in  writing  to  Mr.  Justice 
Story,  to  say,  u  At  the  time  when  this  speech  was  delivered  I  did 
not  know  Mr.  Webster,  but  I  was  so  much  struck  with  it  that  I 
did  not  hesitate  then  to  state  that  he  was  a  very  able  man,  and 
would  become  one  of  the  very  first  statesmen  in  America,  perhaps 
the  very  first."  His  mind  at  the  very  outset  of  his  career  had,  by 
a  kind  of  instinct,  soared  from  the  principles  which  govern  the  mu 
nicipal  relations  of  individuals  to  those  great  rules  which  dictate 
the  Law  of  Nations  to  Independent  States.  He  tells  us,  in  the  frag 
ment  of  a  diary  kept  while  he  was  a  law  student  in  Mr.  Gore's 
office,  that  he  then  read  Vattel  through  for  the  third  time.  Accord 
ingly,  in  after  life,  there  was  no  subject  which  he  discussed  with 
greater  pleasure  and,  I  may  add,  with  greater  power,  than  ques 
tions  of  the  Law  of  Nations.  The  Revolution  of  Greece  had  from 
its  outbreak  attracted  much  of  the  attention  of  the  civilized  world. 
A  people,  whose  ancestors  had  originally  taught  letters  and  arts  to 
mankind,  struggling  to  regain  a  place  in  the  great  family  of  inde 
pendent  states;  the  convulsive  efforts  of  a  Christian  people,  the 
foundation  of  whose  churches  by  the  Apostles  in  person  is  ivronk-d 
in  the  New  Testament,  to  shake  off  the  yoke  of  Mohammedan  des 
potism,  possessed  a  strange  interest  for  the  friends  of  Christian  Lib- ' 
erty  throughout  Europe  and  America.  Preside*;  Monroe  had 
called  the  attention  of  Congress  to  this  most  interesting  struggle  in 
December,  1823 ;  and  Mr.  Webster  returning  4o  Congress,  after  a 
retirement  of  eight  years,  as  the  representative  of  Boston,  made  the 
Greek  Revolution  the  subject  of  a  motion  and  a  speech.  In  this 
speech  he  treated  what  he  called  "  the  great  question  of  the  day — 
the  question  between  absolute  and  regulated  governments."  He 
engaged  in  a  searching  criticism  of  the  doctrines  of  the  "  Holy  Alli 
ance,"  and  maintained  the  duty  of  the  United  States,  as  a  great  1'ive 
power,  to  protest  against  them.  That  speech  remains,  in  my  judg 
ment,  to  this  day  the  ablest  and  most  effective  remonstrance  against 
the  principles  of  the  allied  military  powers  of  continental  Europe. 
Mr.  Jeremiah  Mason  pronounced  it  uthe  best  sample  of  parliament 
ary  eloquence  and  statesmanlike  reasoning  which  our  country  had 
seen."  His  indignant  protest  against  the  spirit  of  absolutism,  and 


190  DANIET,   WEBSTER. 

his  words  of  sympathy  with  an  infant  People  struggling  for  inde 
pendence,  were  borue  on  the  wings  of  the  wind  throughout  Chris 
tendom.  They  were  read  in  every  language,  at  every  court,  in 
every  cabinet,  in  every  reading-room,  on  every  market-place,  by 
the  Republicans  of  Mexico  and  Spanish  South  America,  by  the  Re 
formers  of  Italy,  the  Patriots  of  Poland  ;  on  the  Tagus,  on  the  Dan 
ube,  as  well  as  at  the  head  of  the  little  armies  of  revolutionary 
Greece.  The  practical  impression  which  it  made  on  the  American 
mind  was  seen  in  the  liberality  with  which  cargoes  of  food  and 
clothing,  a  year  or  two  afterward,  were  dispatched  to  the  relief  of 
the  Greeks.  ISTo  legislative  or  executive  measure  was  adopted  at 
that  time  in  consequence  of  Mr.  Webster's  motion  and  speech; 
probably  none  was  anticipated  by  him;  but  no  one  who  considers 
how  much  the  march  of  events  in  such  cases  is  influenced  by  the 
moral  sentiments,  will  doubt  that  a  great  word  like  this,  spoken  in 
the  American  Congress,  must  have  had  no  slight  effect  in  cheering 
the  heart  of  Greece  to  persevere  in  their  unequal  but  finally  suc 
cessful  struggle. 

It  was  by  these  masterly  parliamentary  efforts  that  Mr.  Webster 
left  his  mark  on  the  age  in  which  he  lived.  His  fidelity  to  his  con 
victions  kept  him  for  the  greater  part  of  his  life  in  a  minority ;  a 
position  which  he  regarded,  not  as  a  proscription,  but  as  a  post  of 
honor  and  duty.  He  felt  that  in  free  governments  and  in  a  normal 
state  of  parties,  an  opposition  is  a  political  necessity,  and  that  it  has 
its  duties  not  less  responsible  than  those  which  attach  to  office. 
Before  the  importance  of  Mr.  Webster's  political  services  is  dispar 
aged  for  want  of  positive  results,  which  can  only  be  brought  about 
by  those  who  are  clothed  with  power,  it  must  be  shown  that  to 
raise  a  persuasive  and  convincing  voice  in  the  vindication  of  truth 
and  right,  to  uphold  and  assert  the  true  principles  of  the  govern 
ment  under  which  we  live,  and  bring  them  home  to  the  hearts  of 
the  people — to  do  this  from  a  sense  of  patriotic  duty,  and  without 
hope  of  the  honors  and  emoluments  of  oih'ce,  to  do  it  so  as  to  in 
struct  the  public  conscience  and  warm  the  public  heart,  is  a  less 
meritorious  service  to  society  than  to  touch  with  skillful  hand  the 
springs  of  party  politics,  and  to  hold  together  the  often  discordant 
elements  of  ill-compacted  majorities. 

The  greatest  parliamentary  effort  made  by  Mr.  Webster  was  his 
second  speech  on  Foot's  resolution  ;  the  question  at  issue  being 
nothing  less  than  this  :  Is  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  a 
compact  without  a  common  umpire  between  confederated  sov 
ereignties,  or  is  it  a  government  of  the  People  of  the  United  States, 
sovereign  within  the  sphere  of  its  delegated  powers,  but  reserving 
a  great  mass  of  undelegated  rights  to  the  separate  State  govern 
ments  and  the  People.  With  those  who  embrace  the  opinions 
which  Mr.  Webster  combated  in  this  speech,  this  is  not  the  time 
nor  the  place  to  engage  in  an  argument ;  but  those  who  believe 
that  he  maintained  the  true  principles  of  the  Constitution  will 


DANIEL  WEHSTER.  \f)\ 

probably  agree  that  since  that  Instrument  was  communicated  to 
the  Continental  Congress,  seventy-two  years  ago  this  day,  by 
George  Washington,  as  President  of  the  Federal  Convention,  no 
greater  service  baa  been  rendered  to  them  than  in  the  delivery  of 
this  speech.  Well  do  I  recollect  the  occasion  and  the  scene.  It 
was  truly  what  Wellington  called  the  battle  of  Waterloo,  a  conflict 
of  Giants.  I  passed  an  hour  and  a  half  with  Mr.  Webster,  at  his 
request,  the  evening  before  this  great  effort ;  and  he  went  over  to 
me,  from  a  very  concise  brief,  the  main  topics  of  the  speech,  which 
he  had  prepared  for  the  following  day.  So  calm  and  unimpas- 
sioned  was  the  memorandum,  so  entirely  was  he  at  ease  himself, 
that  I  was  tempted  to  think,  absurdly  enough,  that  he  was  not 
sufficiently  aware  of  the  magnitude  of  the  occasion.  But  I  soon 
perceived  that  his  calmness  was  the  repose  of  conscious  power. 
He  was  not  only  at  ease,  but  sportive  and  full  of  anecdote  ;  and  as 
he  told  the  Senate  playfully  the  next  day,  he  slept  soundly  that 
night  on  the  formidable  assault  of  his  gallant  and  accomplished 
adversary.  So  the  great  Conde  slept  on  the  eve  of  the  battle  of 
Rocroi ;  so  Alexander  slept  on  the  eve  of  the  battle  of  Arbela ; 
and  so  they  awoke  to  deeds  of  immortal  fame.  As  I  saw  him  in 
the  evening  (if  I  may  borrow  an  illustration  from  his  favorite 
amusement)  he  was  as  unconcerned  and  as  free  of  spirit  as  some 
here  have  often  seen  him,  while  floating  in  his  fishing-boat  along 
a  hazy  shore,  gently  rocking  on  the  tranquil  tide,  dropping  his  line 
here  and  there,  with  the  varying  fortune  of  the  sport.  The  next 
morning  he  was  like  some  mighty  Admiral,  dark  and  terrible, 
casting  the  long  shadow  of  his  frowning  tiers  far  over  the  sea,  that 
seemed  to  sink  beneath  him ;  his  broad  pennant  streaming  at  the 
main,  the  stars  and  stripes  at  the  fore,  the  mizzen,  and  the  peak, 
and  bearing  down  like  a  tempest  upon  his  antagonist,  with  all  his 
canvas  strained  to  the  wind,  and  all  his  thunders  roaring  from 
his  broadsides. 

AS   A  JTJEIST. 

/Mr.  Webster's  career  was  not  less  brilliant  as  a  jurist  than  as  a 
'statesman.  In  fact,  he  possessed  in  an  eminent  degree  a  judicial 
mind.  While  performing  an  amount  of  congressional  and  official 
labor  sufficient  to  fill  the  busiest  day  and  to  task  the  strongest 
powers,  he  yet  sustained  with  a  giant's  strength  the  Herculean 
toils  of  his  profession.  At  the  very  commencement  of  his  k'jral 
studies,  resisting  the  fascination  of  a  more  liberal  course  of  read 
ing,  he  laid  his  foundations  deep  in  the  common  law  ;  grappled  as 
well  as  he  might  with  the  weary  subtilties  and  obsolete  technical 
ities  of  Coke  Littleton,  and  abstracted  and  translated  volumes  of 
reports  from  the  Norman-French  and  Latin.  A  fe\v  years  of  prac 
tice  follow  in  the  Courts  of  New  Hampshire,  interrupted  by  his 
service  in  Congress  for  two  political  terms,  and  we  find  him  at  the 
bar  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  at  Washington,  in- 


192  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

augurating  in  the  Dartmouth  College  case  what  may  be  called  a 
new  school  of  constitutional  jurisprudence. 

It  would  be  a  waste  of  time  to  speak  of  that  great  case,  or  of  Mr. 
Webster's  connection  with  it.  It  is  too  freshly  remembered  in  our 
tribunals.  So  novel  at  that  time  were  the  principles  involved  in 
it,  that  a  member  of  the  Court,  after  a  cursory  inspection  of  the 
record  of  the  case,  expressed  the  opinion  that  little  of  importance 
could  be  urged  in  behalf  of  the  plaintiff  in  error ;  but  so  firm  is 
the  basis  on  which  in  that  and  subsequent  cases  of  a  similar  char 
acter  those  principles  were  established,  that  they  form  one  of  the 
best  settled,  as  they  are  one  of  the  most  important,  portions  of  the 
constitutional  law  of  the  Union. 

Not  less  important,  and,  at  the  time,  not  less  novel,  were  the 
principles  involved  in  the  celebrated  case  of  Gibbons  and  Ogden. 
This  case  grew  out  of  a  grant  by  the  State  of  New  York  to  the  as 
signees  of  Fulton  of  the  exclusive  right  to  navigate  by  steam  the 
rivers,  harbors,  and  bays  of  the  Empire  State.  Twenty-five  years 
aftenvard,  Mr.  Justice  Wayne  gave  to  Mr.  Webster  the  credit  of 
having  laid  down  the  broad  constitutional  ground  on  which  the 
navigable  waters  of  the  United  States,  "  every  creek  and  river  and 
lake  and  bay  and  harbor  in  the  country,"  was  forever  rescued  from 
the  grasp  of  State  monopoly.  So  failed  the  intention  of  the  Legis 
lature  of  New  York  to  secure  a  rich  pecuniary  reward  to  the  great 
perfecter  of  steam  navigation  ;  so  must  have  failed  any  attempt  to 
compensate  by  money  the  inestimable  achievement.  Monopolies 
could  not  reward  it;  silver  and  gold  could  not  weigh  down  its 
value.  Small  services  are  paid  with  money ;  large  ones  with  fame. 
Fulton  had  his  reward  \vhen,  after  twenty  years  of  unsuccessful 
experiment  and  hope  deferred,  he  made  the  passage  to  Albany  by 
steam ;  as  Franklin  had  his  reward  when  he  saw  the  fibers  of  the 
cord  which  held  his  kite  stiffening  with  the  electricity  they  had 
drawn  from  the  thunder-cloud ;  as  Galileo  had  his  when  he  point 
ed  his  little  tube  to  the  heavens  and  discovered  the  Mediceau  stars ; 
as  Columbus  had  his  when  he  beheld  from  the  deck  of  his  vessel  a 
moving  light  on  the  shores  of  his  new-found  world.  That  one 
glowing,  unutterable  thrill  of  conscious  success  is  too  exquisite  to 
be  alloyed  with  baser  metal.  The  midnight  vigils,  the  aching 
eyes,  the  fainting  hopes  turned  at  last  into  one  bewildering  ecstasy 
of  triumph,  can  not  be  repaid  with  gold.  The  great  discoveries, 
improvements,  and  inventions  which  benefit  mankind  can  only  be 
rewarded  by  opposition,  obloquy,  poverty,  and  an  undying  name ! 

Time  would  fail  me,  were  I  otherwise  equal  to  the  task,  to  dwell 
on  the  other  great  constitutional  cases  argued  by  Mr.  Webster; 
those  on  State  insolvent  laws,  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  the 
Sailor's  Snug  Harbor,  the  Charlestown  Bridge  Franchise,  or  those 
other  great  cases  on  the  validity  of  Mr.  Girard's  will,  in  which  Mr. 
Webster's  argument  drew  forth  an  emphatic  acknowledgment 
from  the  citizens  of  Washington,  of  all  denominations,  for  its  great 


DANIEL  WEBSTEK.  193 

value  "in  demonstrating  the  vital  importance  of  Christianity  to 
the  success  of  our  free  institutions,  and  that  the  general  diffusion 
of  that  argument  among  the  People  of  the  United  States  is  a  mat 
ter  of  deep  public  interest ;"  or  the  argument  in  the  Rhode  Island 
charter  case  in  1848,  which  attracted  no  little  public  notice  in  Eu 
rope  at  that  anxious  period,  as  a  masterly  discussion  of  the  true 
principles  of  constitutional  obligation. 

.^-""It  would  be  superfluous,  I  might  almost  say  impertinent,  to  re 
mark,  that  if  Mr.  Webster  stood  at  the  head  of  the  constitutional 
lawyers  of  the  country,  he  was  not  less  distinguished  in  early  and 
middle  life  in  the  ordinary  walks  of  the  profession.  From  a  very 
early  period  he  shared  the  best  practice  with  the  most  eminent  of 
his  profession.  The  trial  of  Goodridge  in  1817,  and  of  Ivnapp  in 
1829,  are  still  recollected  as  specimens  of  the  highest  professional 
skill,  the  latter,  in  fact,  as  a  case  of  historical  importance  in  the  crim 
inal  jurisprudence  of  the  country. 

But,  however  distinguished  his  reputation  in  the  other  depart 
ments  of  his  profession,  his  fame  as  a  jurist  is  mainly  associated 
with  the  tribunals  of  the  United  States.  The  relation  of  the  Fed 
eral  Government  to  that  of  the  States  is  peculiar  to  this  country, 
and  gives  rise  to  a  class  of  cases  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  to  which  there  is  nothing  analagous  in  the  jurispru 
dence  of  England.  In  that  country,  nothing,  not  even  the  express 
words  of  a  treaty,  can  be  pleaded  against  an  act  of  Parliament. 
The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  entertains  questions 
which  involve  the  constitutionality  of  the  laws  of  State  Legislatures, 
the  validity  of  the  decrees  of  State  Courts — nay,  of  the  constitu 
tionality  of  the  acts  of  Congress  itself.  Every  one  feels  that  this 
range  and  elevation  of  jurisdiction  must  tend  greatly  to  the  respecta 
bility  of  practice  at  that  forum,  and  give  a  breadth  and  liberality  to 
the  tone  with  which  questions  are  there  discussed,  not  so  much  to  be 
there  looked  for  in  the  ordinary  litigation  of  the  common  law.  No 
one  needs  to  be  reminded  how  fully  Mr.  Webster  felt,  and,  in  his 
own  relations  to  it,  sustained  the  dignity  of  this  tribunal.  He  re 
garded  it  as  the  great  mediating  power  of  the  Constitution.  He 
believed  that,  while  it  commanded  the  confidence  of  the  country, 
no  serious  derangement  of  any  of  the  other  great  functions  of  the 
government  was  to  be  apprehended.  If  it  should  ever  fail  to  do  so, 
he  feared  the  worst.  For  the  memory  of  Marshall,  the  great  and 
honored  magistrate,  who  presided  in  this  court  for  the  third  part 
of  a  century,  and  did  so  much  to  raise  its  reputation  and  establish 
its  influence,  he  cherished  feelings  of  veneration  second  only  to 

V  those  which  he  bore  to  the  memory  of  Washington.   , 

AS   A   DIPLOMATIST. 

In  his  political  career  Mr.  Webster  owed  almost  everything  to 
popular  choice,  or  the  favor  of  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts. 
He  was,  however,  twice  clothed  with  executive  power,  as  the  head 


194  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

of  an  Administration,  and  in  that  capacity  achieved  a  diplomatic, 
success  of  the  highest  order.  Among  the  victories  of  peace  not 
less  renowned  than  those  of  war  which  Milton  celebrates,  the  first 
place  is  surely  due  to  those  friendly  arrangements  between  great 
powers,  by  which  war  is  averted.  Such  an  arrangement  was  effect 
ed  by  Mr.  Webster  in  1842,  in  reference  to  more  than  one  highly  ir 
ritating  question  between  this  country  and  Great  Britain,  and  es 
pecially  the  North-Eastern  Boundary  of  the  United  States.  I 
allude  to  the  subject,  not  for  the  sake  of  reopening  obselete  contro 
versies,  but  for  the  purpose  of  vindicating  his  memory  from  the 
charges  of  disingenuousness,  and  even  fraud,  which  were  brought 
against  him  at  the  time  in  England,  and  which  have  very  lately 
been  revived  in  that  country.  I  do  it  the  rather,  as  the  facts  of 
^the  case  have  never  been  fully  stated. 

The  North-Eastern  Boundary  of  the  United  States,  which  was 
described  by  the  treaty  of  1783,  had  never  been  surveyed  and  run. 
It  was  still  unsettled  in  1842,  and  had  become  the  subject  of  a  con 
troversy,  which  had  resisted  the  ability  of  several  successive 
administrations,  on  both  sides  of  the  water,  and  had  nearly  ex 
hausted  the  resources  of  arbitration  and  diplomacy.  Border  col 
lisions,  though  happily  no  bloodshed,  had  taken  place ;  seventeen 
regiments  had  been  thrown  into  the  British  provinces ;  General 
Scott  had  been  dispatched  to  the  frontier  of  Maine ;  and  our 
Minister  in  London  (Mr.  Stevenson)  had  written  to  the  commander 
of  the  American  squadron  in  the  Mediterranean,  that  a  collision, 
in  his  opinion,  was  inevitable. 

Such  was  the  state  of  things  when  Mr.  Webster  came  into  the 
Department  of  State  in  the  spring  of  1841.  He  immediately  gave 
an  intimation  to  the  British  Government  that  he  was  desirous  of 
renewing  the  interrupted  negotiation.  A  change  of  ministry  took 
place  in  England  in  the  course  of  a  few  months,  and  a  resolution 
was  soon  taken  by  Sir  Eobert  Peel  and  Lord  Aberdeen  to  send  a 
special  Envoy  to  the  United  States,  to  make  a  last  attempt  to  settle 
this  dangerous  dispute  by  negotiation.  Lord  Ashburton  was  selected 
for  this  honorable  errand,  and  his  known  friendly  relations  with 
Mr.  Webster  were  among  the  motives  that  prompted  his  appoint 
ment.  It  may  be  observed,  that  the  intrinsic  difficulties  of  the  ne 
gotiation  were  increased  by  the  circumstance,  that,  as  the  disputed 
territory  lay  in  the  State  of  Maine,  and  the  property  of  the  soil 
was  in  Maine  and  Massachusetts,  it  was  deemed  necessary  to  obtain 
the  consent  of  those  States  to  any  arrangement  that  might  be  en 
tered  into  by  the  General  Government. 

The  length  of  time  for  which  the  question  had  been  controverted 
had,  as  usually  happens  in  such  cases,  the  effect  of  fixing  both 
parties  more  firmly  in  their  opposite  views  of  the  subject.  It  was 
a  pledge,  at  least,  of  the  good  faith  with  which  the  United  States 
had  conducted  the  discussion,  that  everything  in  our  archives  bear 
ing  on  the  subject  had  been  voluntarily  spread  before  the  world. 


DANIEL  WEBSTEK.  195 

On  the  other  side,  no  part  of  the  correspondence  of  the  ministers 
who  negotiated  the  treaty  had  ever  been  published,  and  whenever 
Americans  were  permitted,  for  literary  purposes,  to  institute  his 
torical  inquiries  in  the  public  offices  in  London,  precautions  were 
taken  to  prevent  anything  from  being  brought  to  light  which  might 
bear  unfavorably  on  the  British  interpretation  of  the  treaty. 

The  American  interpretation  of  the  treaty  had  been  maintained 
in  its  fullest  extent,  as  far  as  I  am  aware,  by  every  statesman  in 
the  country,  of  whatever  party,  to  whom  the  question  had  ever 
been  submitted.  It  had  been  thus  maintained  in  good  faith  by  an 
entire  generation  of  public  men  of  the  highest  intelligence  and  most 
unquestioned  probity.  The  British  government  had,  with  equal 
confidence,  maintained  their  interpretation.  The  attempt  to  settle 
the  controversy  by  a  reference  to  the  King  of  the  Netherlands  had 
failed.  In  this  state  of  things,  as  the  boundary  had  remained  un 
settled  for  tifty-nine  years,  and  had  been  controverted  for  more 
than  twenty  ;  as  negotiation  and  arbitration  had  shown  that  neither 
party  was  likely  to  convince  tho  other ;  and  as,  in  cases  of  this 
kind,  it  is  more  important  that  a  public  controversy  should  be  settled 
than  how  it  should  be  settled  (of  course  within  reasonable  limits), 
Mr.  Webster  had  from  the  first  contemplated  a  conventional  line. 
Such  a  line,  and  for  the  same  reasons,  was  anticipated  in  Lord  Ash- 
burton's  instructions,  and  was  accordingly  agreed  upon  by  the  two 
negotiators — a  line  convenient  and  advantageous  to  both  parties. 

Such  an  adjustment,  however,  like  that  which  had  been  proposed 
by  the  King  of  the  Netherlands,  was  extremely  distasteful  to  the 
people  of  Maine,  who,  standing  on  their  rights,  adhered  with  the 
greatest  tenacity  to  the  boundary  described  by  the  treaty  of  1783, 
as  the  United  States  had  always  claimed  it.  As  the  opposition  of 
Maine  had  prevented  that  arrangement  from  taking  effect,  there  is 
great  reason  to  suppose  that  it  would  have  prevented  the  adoption 
of  the  conventional  line  agreed  to  by  Mr.  Webster  and  Lord  Ash- 
burton,  but  for  the  following  circumstance. 

This  was  the  discovery,  the  year  before,  by  President  Sparks,  in 
the  archives  of  the  Bureau  of  Foreign  Affairs,  at  Paris,  of  a  copy 
of  a  small  map  of  North  America,  by  D'Auville,  published  in  1746, 
on  which  a  red  line  was  drawn,  indicating  a  boundary  between  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain  more  favorable  to  the  latter  than 
she  had  herself  claimed  it.  By  whom  it  was  marked,  or  for  what 
purpose,  did  not  appear,  from  any  indication  on  the  map  itself. 
There  was  also  found,  in  the  Bureau  of  Foreign  Affairs,  in  a  hound 
volume  of  official  correspondence,  a  letter  from  Dr.  Franklin  to  the 
Count  de  Vergennes,  dated  on  the  Oth  of  December  (six  days  alter 
the  signature  of  the  provisional  articles),  stating  that,  in  compliance 
with  the  Count's  request,  and  on  4  map  sent  him  for  the  purpose, 
he  had  marked,  "with  a  strong  red  line,  the  limits  of  the  United 
States,  as  settled  in  the  preliminaries." 

The  French  archives  had  been  searched  by  Mr.  Canning's  agents 


196  DANIEL  WEBSTEK. 

as  long  ago  as  1827,  but  this  map  either  escaped  their  notice,  or 
had  not  been  deemed  by  them  of  importance.  The  English  and 
French  maps  of  this  region  differ  from  each  other,  and  it  is  known 
that  the  map  used  by  the  negotiators  of  the  treaty  of  1783  was 
Mitchell's  large  map  of  America,  published  under  the  official  sanc 
tion  of  the  Board  of  Trade  in  1754.  D'Anville's  map  was  but 
eighteen  inches  square,  and  on  so  small  a  scale  the  difference  of  the 
two  boundaries  would  be  but  slight,  and  consequently  open  to  mis 
take.  The  letter  of  the  Count  de  Vergennes,  transmitting  a  map 
to  be  marked,  is  not  preserved,  nor  is  there  any  indorsement  on 
the  red-line  map  to  show  that  it  is  the  map  sent  by  the  Count  and 
marked  by  Franklin.  D'AnvihVs  map  was  published  in  1746,  and 
it  would  surely  be  unwarrantable  to  take  for  granted,  in  a  case  of 
such  importance,  that,  in  the  course  of  thirty  years,  it  could  not 
have  been  marked  with  a  red  line  for  some  other  purpose,  and  by 
some  other  person.  It  would  be  equally  rash  to  assume  as  certain 
either  that  the  map  marked  by  Franklin  for  the  Count  de  Vergen 
nes  was  deposited  by  him  in  the  public  archives;  or,  if  so  depos 
ited,  may  not  still  be  hid  a\vay  among  the  sixty  thousand  maps 
contained  in  that  depository.  The  official  correspondence  of  Mr. 
Oswald,  the  British  negotiator,  was  retained  by  the  British  minister 
in  his  own  possession,  and  does  not  appear  to  have  gone  into  the 
public  archives. 

In  the  absence  of  all  evidence  to  connect  Dr.  Franklin's  letter 
with  the  map,  it  could  not,  in  a  court  of  justice,  have  been  received 
for  a  moment  as  a  map  marked  by  him ;  and  any  presumption  that 
it  was  so  marked,  was  resisted  by  the  language  of  the  treaty. 
This  point  was  urged  in  debate,  with  great  force,  by  Lord  Brougham, 
who,  as  well  as  Sir  Robert  Peel,  liberally  defended  Mr.  Webster 
from  the  charges  which  the  opposition  journals  in  London  had 
brought  against  him. 

Information  of  this  map  was,  in  the  progress  of  the  negotiation, 
•very  properly  communicated  to  Mr.  Webster  by  Mr.  Sparks.  For 
the  reasons  stated,  it  could  not  be  admitted  as  proving  anything. 
It  was  another  piece  of  evidence  of  uncertain  character,  and  Mr. 
Webster  could  have  no  assurance  that  the  next  day  might  not  pro 
duce  some  other  map  equally  strong  or  stronger  on  the  American 
side ;  which,  as  I  shall  presently  state,  was  soon  done  in  London. 

In  this  state  of  things,  he  made  the  only  use  of  it  which  could 
be  legitimately  made,  in  communicating  it  to  the  commissioners  of 
the  State  of  Maine  and  Massachusetts  and  to  the  Senate,  as  a  piece 
of  conflicting  evidence,  entitled  to  consideration,  likely  to  be  urged 
as  of  great  importance  by  the  opposite  party,  if  the  discussion 
should  be  renewed,  increasing  the  difficulties  which  already  sur 
rounded  the  question,  and  thus  furnishing  new  grounds  for  agree 
ing  to  the  proposed  conventional  line.  No  one,  I  think,  acquainted 
with  the  history  of  the  controversy,  and  the  state  of  public  opinion 
and  feeling,  can  doubt  that,  but  for  this  communication,  it  would 


DANIEL  WEBSTER.  197 

have  been  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  procure  the  assent  either 
of  Maine  or  of  the  Senate  to  the  treaty. 

This  would  seem  to  be  going  as  far  as  reason  or  honor  required, 
in  reference  to  an  unauthentioated  document,  having  none  of  the 
properties  of  legal  evidence,  not  exhibited  by  the  opposite  party, 
and  of  a  nature  to  be  outweighed  by  contradictory  evidence  of  the 
same  kind,  which  was  very  soon  done.  But  Mr.  Webster  was,  at 
the  time,  severely  censured  by  the  opposition  press  in  England, 
and  was  accused  of  "perfidy  and  want  of  good  faith"  (and  this 
charge  has  lately  been  revived  in  an  elaborate  and  circumstantial 
manner),  for  not  going  with  this  map  to  Lord  Ashburton ;  entirely 
abandoning  the  American  claim,  and  ceding  the  whole  of  the  dis 
puted  territory,  more  even  than  she  asked,  to  Great  Britain,  on  the 
strength  of  this  single  piece  of  doubtful  evidence. 

Such  a  charge  scarcely  deserves  an  answer ;  but  two  things  will 
occur  to  all  impartial  persons :  one,  that  the  red-line  map,  even  had 
it  been  proved  to  have  been  marked  by  Franklin  (which  it  is  not), 
would  be  but  one  piece  of  evidence  to  be  weighed  with  the  words 
of  the  treaty,  with  all  the  other  evidence  in  the  case,  and  especially 
with  the  other  maps ;  and,  secondly,  that  such  a  course  as  it  is  pre 
tended  that  Mr.  Webster  ought  to  have  pursued,  could  only  be 
reasonably  required  of  him,  on  condition  that  the  British  govern 
ment  had  also  produced,  or  would  undertake  to  produce,  all  the 
evidence,  and  especially  all  the  maps  in  its  possession,  favorable  to 
the  American  claim. 

Now,  not  to  urge  against  the  red-line  map,  that,  as  was  vigor 
ously  argued  by  Lord  Brougham,  it  was  at  variance  with  the  ex 
press  words  "of  the  treaty,  there  were,  according  to  Mr.  Gallatin, 
the  commissioner  for  preparing  the  claim  of  the  United  States,  to 
be  submitted  to  the  arbiter  in  1827,  at  least  twelve  maps  published 
in  London  in  the  course  of  two  years  after  the  signature  of  the  pro 
visional  articles  in  1782,  all  of  which  give  the  boundary  line  pre 
cisely  as  claimed  by  the  United  States ;  and  no  map  was  published 
in  London,  favoring  the  British  claim,  till  the  third  year.  The 
earliest  of  these  maps  were  prepared  to  illustrate  the  debates  in 
Parliament  on  the  treaty,  or  to  illustrate  the  treaty  in  anticipation 
of  the  debate.  None  of  the  speakers  on  either  side  intimated  that 
these  maps  are  inaccurate,  though  some  of  the  opposition  speakers 
attacked  the  treaty  as  giving  a  disadvantageous  boundary.  One 
of  these  maps,  that  of  Faden,  the  royal  geographer,  was  stated  on 
the  face  of  it  to  be  u  drawn  according  to  the  treaty."  Mr.  Sparks 
is  of  opinion  that  Mr.  Oswald,  the  British  envoy  by  whom  the 
treaty  was  negotiated,  and  who  was  in  London  when  the  earliest 
of  the  maps  were  engraved,  was  consulted  by  the  map-makers  on 
the  subject  of  the  boundary.  At  any  rate,  had  they  been  inaccu 
rate  in  this  respect,  either  Mr.  Oswald  or  the  minister,  u  who  was 
vehemently  assailed  on  account  of  the  large  concession  of  the 
boundaries,"  would  have  exposed  the  error.  But  neither  by  Mr. 


198  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

Oswald  nor  by  any  of  the  ministers  was  any  complaint  made  of  the 
inaccuracy  of  the  maps. 

One  of  these  maps  was  that  contained  in  "Bew's  Political  Mag 
azine,"  a  respectable  journal,  for  which  it  was  prepared,  to  illus 
trate  the  debate  on  the  provisional  articles  of  1782.  It  happened 
that  Lord  Ashburton  was  calling-  upon  me,  about  the  time  of  the 
debate  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  merits  of  the  Treaty,  on 
the  21st  March,  1843.  On  my  expressing  to  him  the  opinion,  with 
the  freedom  warranted  by  our  intimate  friendly  relations,  that  his 
government  ought  to  be  much  obliged  to  him  for  obtaining  so  much 
of  a  territory,  of  which  I  conscientiously  believed  the  whole  be 
longed  to  us,  "  What,"  asked  he,  "  have  you  to  oppose  to  the  red- 
line  map?"  I  replied  that,  in  addition  to  the  other  objections 
already  mentioned,  I  considered  it  to  be  outweighed  by  the  numer 
ous  other  maps  which  were  published  at  London  at  the  time,  some 
of  them  to  illustrate  the  treaty ;  and,  among  them,  I  added,  "  the 
map  in  the  volume  which  happens  to  lie  on  my  table  at  this  mo 
ment,"  which  was  the  volume  of  "Bew's  Political  Magazine," 
to  which  I  called  his  attention.  He  told  me  that  he  was  unac 
quainted  with  that  map,  and  desired  that  I  would  lend  him  the  vol 
ume  to  show  to  Sir  Robert  Peel.  This  I  did,  and  in  his  reply  to 
Lord  Palmerston,  in  the  House  of  Commons,  Sir  Robert  Peel,  hold 
ing  this  volume  of  mine  in  his  hand,  referred  to  the  map  contain 
ed  in  it,  and  "which  follows,"  said  he,  "exactly  the  American 
line,"  as  an  off-set  to  the  red-line  map,  of  which  great  use  bad  been 
made  by  the  opposition  in  England,  for  the  purpose  of  showing 
that  Lord  Ashburton  had  been  overreached  by  Mr.  Webster.  In 
the  course  of  his  speech  he  defended  Mr.  Webster  in  the  handsom 
est  manner  from  the  charges  brought  against  him  in  reference  to 
this  map  by  the  opposition  press,  and  said  that  in  his  judgment 
*'  the  reflections  cast  upon  that  most  worthy  and  honorable  man  are 
unjust." 

ISTor  was  this  all.  The  more  effectually  to  remove  the  impression 
attempted  to  be  raised,  in  consequence  of  the  red-line  map,  that 
Lord  Ashburton  had  been  overreached,  Sir  Robert  Peel  stated — 
and  the  disclosure  was  now  for  the  first  time  made — that  there  was 
in  the  library  of  King  George  the  Third  (which  had  been  given  to  the 
British  Museum  by  George  the  Fourth)  a  copy  of  Mitchell's  map,  in 
which  the  boundary  as  delineated  "  follows  exactly  the  line  claimed 
by  the  United  States."  On  four  places  upon  this  line  are  written 
the  words,  in  a  strong,  bold  hand,  '*  The  boundary  as  described  by 
Mr.  Oswald."  There  is  documentary  proof  that  Mr.  Oswald  sent 
the  map  used  by  him,  in  negotiating  the  treaty,  to  King  George 
the  Third,  for  his  information;  and  Lord  Brougham  stated  in  his 
place,  in  the  House  of  Peers,  that  the  words,  four  times  repeated, 
in  different  parts  of  the  line,  were,  in  his  opinion,  written  by  the 
King  himself!  Having  listened,  and  of  course  with  the  deepest  in 
terest  to  the  debate  in  the  House  of  Commons,  I  sought  the  earli- 


DANIEL  WEBSTER.  lf)() 

est  opportunity  of  inspecting  the  map,  which  was  readily  granted 
to  me  by  Lord  Aberdeen.  The  boundary  is  marked,  in  the  most 
distinct  and  skillful  manner,  from  the  St.  Croix  all  round  to  the  St. 
Marv's,  ami  is  precisely  thai  which  lias  been  always  claimed  by  us. 
Then-  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  this  is  the  identical  copy  of 
Mitchell's  map  otlicially  used  by  the  negotiators  and  sent  by  Mr. 
()>\\ald.  as  we  learn  from  Dr.  Franklin,  to  England.  Sir  Kobert 
Peel  informed  me  that  it  was  unknown  to  him  till  after  the  treaty, 
and  Lord  Aberdeen  and  Lord  Ashhurton  gave  me  the  same  assur 
ance.  It  was  well  known,  however,  to  the  agent  employed  under 
Lord  Melbourne's  administration  in  maintaining  the  British  claim, 
and  who  was  foremost  in  vilifying  Mr.  Webster  for  concealing  the 
red-line  map!* 

AB   A   PUBLIC   SPEAKEE. 

had  intended  to  say  a  few  words  on  Mr.  "Webster's  transcend- 
ability  as  a  public  speaker  on  the  great  national  anniversaries, 
and  the  patriotic  celebrations  of  the  country.  But  it  would  be 
impossible,  within  the  limits  of  a  few  paragraphs,  to  do  any  kind 
of  justice  to  such  efforts  as  the  discourse  on  the  twenty-second 
December,  at  Plymouth ;  the  speeches  on  laying  the  corner-stone 
and  the  completion  of  the  Bunker  Hill  Monument ;  the  eulogy 
on  Adams  and  Jefferson ;  the  character  of  Washington ;  the  dis 
course  on  laying  the  foundation  of  the  extension  of  the  Capitol. 
"What  gravity  and  significance  in  the  topics,  what  richness  of  illus 
tration,  what  soundness  of  principle,  what  elevation  of  sentiment, 
what  fervor  in  the  patriotic  appeals,  what  purity,  vigor,  and  clear 
ness  in  the  style ! 

With  reference  to  the  first-named  of  these  admirable  discourses, 
the  elder  President  Adams  declared  that  "  Burke  is  no  longer  enti 
tled  to  the  praise — the  most  consummate  orator  of  modern  times;" 
and  it  will,  I  think,  be  admitted  by  any  one  who  shall  attentively 
study  them,  that  if  Mr.  Webster,  with  all  his  powers  and  all  his  at 
tainments,  had  done  nothing  else  but  enrich  the  literature  of  the 
country  with  these  performances,  he  would  be  allowed  to  have 
lived  not  unworthily,  nor  in  vain.  When  we  consider  that  they 
were  produced  under  the  severe  pressure  of  professional  and  offi 
cial  engagements,  numerous  and  arduous  enough  to  task  even  his 
intellect,  we  are  lost  in  admiration  of  the  affluence  of  his  mental 
resources. 


*  Sir  Eobert  Peel,  with  reference  to  the  line  on  Oswald's  map,  observes,  "I  do 
not  say  that  that  was  the  boundary,  ultimately  settled  by  the  negotiators."  Such, 
however,  is  certainly  the  case.  Mr.  Jay's  copy  of  Mitchell's  map  (which  was  also 
discovered  after  the  negotiation  of  the  treaty)  exhibits  a  line  running  down  the  St. 
John's  to  its  mouth,  and  called  Mr.  Oswald's  line."  This  is  the  line  which  Mr.  Os 
wald  offered  to  the  American  negotiators  on  the  *th  of  October.  It  was,  however, 
not  approved  by  the  British  government,  and  t!>e  line  indicated  in  the  map  of  King 
George  the  Third,  as  the  u  Boundary  as  described  by  Mr.  Oswald,"  was  finally 
agreed  to. 


200  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

GENERAL   CHARACTERISTICS   OF   STYLE   AND   MANATEE. 

In  all  the  speeches,  arguments,  discourses,  and  compositions  of 
every  kind  proceeding  from  Mr.  Webster's  lips  or  pen,  there  were 
certain  general  characteristics  which  I  am  unwilling  to  dismiss 
without  a  passing  allusion.  Each,  of  course,  had  its  peculiar 
merits,  according  to  the  nature  and  importance  of  the  subject, 
and  the  degree  of  pains  bestowed  by  Mr.  Webster  on  the  dis 
cussion  ;  but  I  find  some  general  qualities  pervading  them  all. 
One  of  them  is  the  extreme  sobriety  of  the  tone,  the  pervading 
common  sense,  the  entire  absence  of  that  extravagance  and  over 
statement  which  are  so  apt  to  creep  into  political  harangues  and 
the  discourses  on  patriotic  anniversaries.  His  positions  were  taken 
strongly,  clearly,  and  boldly,  but  without  wordy  amplification  or  one 
sided  vehemence.  You  feel  that  your  understanding  is  addressed, 
on  behalf  of  a  reasonable  proposition,  which  rests  neither  on  senti 
mental  refinement  or  rhetorical  exaggeration.  This  is  the  case 
even  in  speeches  like  that  on  the  Greek  Revolution,  where,  in  en 
listing  the  aid  of  classical  memories  and  Christian  sympathies,  it 
was  so  difficult  to  rest  within  the  bounds  of  moderation. 

This  moderation  not  only  characterizes  Mr.  Webster's  parlia 
mentary  efforts,  but  is  equally  conspicuous  in  his  discourses  on 
popular  and  patriotic  occasions,  which,  amid  all  the  inducements 
to  barren  declamation,  are  equally  and  always  marked  by  the  treat 
ment  of  really  important  topics  in  a  manly  and  instructive  strain 
of  argument  and  reflection, 

Let  it  not  be  thought,  however,  that  I  would  represent  Mr. 
Webster's  speeches  in  Congress  or  elsewhere  as  destitute  on  proper 
occasions  of  the  most  glowing  appeals  to  the  moral  sentiments,  or 
wanting,  when  the  topic  invites  it,  in  any  of  the  adornments  of  a 
magnificent  rhetoric.  Who  that  heard  it,  or  has  read  it,  will  ever 
forget  the  desolating  energy  of  his  denunciation  of  the  African 
Slave  Trade,  in  the  discourse  at  Plymouth ;  or  the  splendor  of  the 
apostrophe  to  Warren,  in  the  first  discourse  on  Bunker  Hill ;  or 
that  to  the  monumental  shaft  and  the  survivors  of  the  Revolution 
in  the  second ;  or  the  trumpet-tones  of  the  speech  placed  in  the 
lips  of  John  Adams,  in  the  eulogy  on  Adams  and  Jefferson  ;  or  the 
sublime  peroration  of  the  speech  on  Foot's  resolution ;  or  the  lyric 
fire  of  the  imagery  by  which  he  illustrates  the  extent  of  the  Brit 
ish  empire ;  or  the  almost  supernatural  terror  of  his  description 
of  the  force  of  conscience  in  the  argument  in  Knapp's  trial.  Then, 
how  bright  and  fresh  the  description  of  Niagara !  how  beautiful 
the  picture  of  the  Morning  in  his  private  correspondence,  which, 
as  well  as  his  familiar  conversation,  was  enlivened  by  the  per 
petual  play  of  a  joyous  and  fertile  imagination!  In  a  word,  what 
tone  in  all  the  grand  and  melting  music  of  our  language  is  there 
which  is  not  heard  in  some  portion  of  his  speeches  or  writings ; 
while  reason,  sense,  and  truth  compose  the  basis  of  the  strain  ? 


DANIEL  WEBSTER.  201 

Like  the  sky  above  us,  it  is  sometimes  serene  and  cloudless,  and 
peace  and  love  shine  out  from  its  starry  depths.  At  other  times 
the  gallant  streamers,  in  wild,  fantastic  play — emerald,  and  rose, 
and  orange,  and  lleecy  white — shoot  upward  from  the  horizon, 
mingle  in  a  fiery  canopy  at  the  zenith,  and  throw  out  their  flick 
ering  curtains  over  the  heavens  and  the  earth ;  while  at  other 
times  the  mustering  tempest  piles  his  lowering  battlements  on  the 
sides  of  the  north;  a  furious  storm- wind  rushes  forth  from  their 
blazing  loop-holes,  and  volleyed  thunders  give  the  signal  of  the  ele 
mental  war ! 

Another  quality,  which  appears  to  me  to  be  very  conspicuous  in  all 
Mr.  Webster's  .speeches,  is  the  fairness  and  candor  with  which  he 
treats  the  argument  of  his, opponent,  and  the  total  absence  of 
olieiiMve  personality.  lie  was  accustomed,  in  preparing  to  argue 
a  question  at  the  bar,  or  to  debate  it  in  the  Senate,  first  to  state 
his  opponent's  case,  or  argument,  in  his  own  mind,  with  as  much 
force  and  skill  as  if  it  were  his  own  view  of  the  subject,  not  deeming 
it  worthy  of  a  statesman  discussing  the  great  issues  of  the  public 
weal,  to  assail  and  prostrate  a  man  of  straw,  and  call  it  a  victory 
over  his  antagonist.  True  to  his  party  associations,  there  wTas  the 
least  possible  mingling  of  the  partizan  in  his  parliamentary  efforts. 
No  one,  I  think,  ever  truly  said  of  him  that  he  had  either  misrep 
resented  or  failed  to  grapple  fairly  with  the  argument  which  he  un 
dertook  to  confute.  That  he  possessed  the  power  of  invective  in 
the  highest  degree  is  well  known,  from  the  display  of  it  on  a  few 
occasions,  when  great  provocation  justified  and  required  it ;  but  he 
habitually  abstained  from  offensive  personality,  regarding  it  as  an 
indication  always  of  a  bad  temper,  and  generally  of  a  weak 
cause. 

I  notice,  lastly,  a  sort  of  judicial  dignity  in  Mr.  Webster's  mode 
of  treating  public  questions,  which  may  be  ascribed  to  the  high  de 
gree  in  which  he  united,  in  the  range  of  his  studies  and  the  habits 
of  his  life,  the  jurist  with  the  statesman.  There  were  occasions, 
and  these  not.  a  few,  when  but  for  the  locality  from  which  he 
spoke,  you  might  have  been  at  a  loss  whether  you  were  listening 
to  the  accomplished  senator  unfolding  the  principles  of  the  Con 
stitution  as  a  system  of  Government,  or  the  consummate  jurist  ap 
plying  its  legislative  provisions  to  the  practical  interests  of  life.  In 
the  Dartmouth  College  case,  and  that  of  Gibbons  and  Ogden,  the 
dryness  of  a  professional  argument  is  forgotten  in  the  breadth  and 
elevation  of  the  constitutional  principles  shown  to  be  involved  in 
the  issue  ;  while  in  the  great  speeches  on  the  interpretation  of  the 
Constitution,  a  severe  judicial  logic  darts  its  sunbeams  into  the 
deepest  recesses  of  a  written  compact  of  Government,  intended 
to  work  out  a  harmonious  adjustment  of  the  antagonistic  principles 
of  Federal  and  State  sovereignty.  None,  I  think,  but  a  great 
statesman  could  have  performed  Mr.  Webster's  part  before  the 
highest  tribunals  of  the  land  ;  none  but  a  great  lawyer  could  have 


202  DANIEL  WEBSTEB. 

sustained  himself  as  he  did  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate.  In  fact,  he 
rose  to  that  elevation  at  which  the  law,  in  its  highest  conception, 
and  in  its  versatile  functions  and  agencies,  as  the  great  mediator  be 
tween  the  State  and  the  individual ;  the  shield  b j  which  the  weakness 
of  the  single  man  is  protected  from  the  violence  and  craft  of  his  fel 
lows,  and  clothed  for  the  defense  of  his  rights  with  the  mighty  power 
of  the  mass ;  which  watches — faithful  guardian — over  the  life  and 
property  of  the  orphan  in  the  cradle ;  spreads  the  aegis  of  the  pub 
lic  peace  alike  over  the  crowded  streets  of  great  cities  and  the  sol 
itary  pathways  of  the  wilderness ;  which  convoys  the  merchant 
and  his  cargo  in  safety  to  and  from  the  ends  of  the  earth  ;  pre 
scribes  the  gentle  humanities  of  civilization  to  contending  armies ; 
sits  serene  umpire  of  the  clashing  interests  of  confederated  States, 
and  molds  them  all  into  one  grand  union ; — I  say,  M^  Webster 
rose  to  an  elevation  at  \vhich  all  these  attributes  and  functions  of 
universal  law — in  action  alternately  executive,  legislative,  and  ju 
dicial  ;  in  form,  successively  constitution,  statute,  and  decree — are 
mingled  into  one  harmonious,  protecting,  strengthening,  vitalizing, 
sublime  system ;  brightest  image  on  earth  of  that  ineifable  sove 
reign  energy,  which,  with  mingled  power,  wisdom,  and  love,  up 
holds  and  governs  the  universe. 

THE   CENTRAL   IDEA    OF   HIS   POLITICAL   SYSTEM. 

Led  equally  by  his  professional  occupations  and  his  political  du 
ties  to  make  the  Constitution  the  object  of  his  profoundest  study 
and  meditation,  he  regarded  it  with  peculiar  reverence,  as  a  Cove 
nant  of  Union  between  the  members  of  this  great  and  increasing 
family  of  States ;  and  in  that  respect  he  considered  it  as  the  most  im 
portant  document  ever  penned  by  the  hand  of  uninspired  man.  I 
need  not  tell  you  that  this  reverence  for  the  Constitution  as  the 
covenant  of  union  between  the  States  was  the  central  idea  of  his 
political  system,  which,  however,  in  this,  as  in  all  other  respects, 
aimed  at  a  wise  and  safe  balance  of  extreme  opinions.  He  valued, 
as  much  as  any  man  can  possibly  value  it,  the  principle  of  State 
sovereignty.  He  looked  upon  the  organization  of  these  separate 
independent  republics — of  different  sizes,  different  ages  and  histo 
ries,  different  geographical  positions  and  local  interests — as  furnish 
ing  a  security  of  inappreciable  value  for  a  wise  and  beneficent 
administration  of  local  affairs,  and  the  protection  of  individual  and 
local  rights.  But  he  regarded  as  an  approach  to  the  perfection  of 
political  wisdom,  the  molding  of  these  separate  and  independent 
sovereignties,  with  all  their  pride  of  individual  right,  and  all  their 
jealousy  of  individual  consequence,  into  a  harmonious  whole.  He 
never  weighed  the  two  principles  against  each  other;  he  held 
them  complemental  to  each  other,  equally  and  supremely  vital  and 
essential. 

I  happened,  one  bright  starry  night,  to  be  walking  home  with 
him,  at  a  late  hour,  from  the  Capitol  at  Washington,  after  a  skir- 


DANIEL  WEBSTER.  203 

mishing  debate,  in  "which  lie  had  been  speaking,  at  no  great  length, 
but.  with  much  earnestness  and  warmth,  on  the  subject  of  thet'on- 
stitution  as  forming  a  united  government.  The  planet  Jupiter, 
shininir  with  unusual  brilliancy,  was  in  full  view.  He  paused  as  we 
descended  Capitol  Kill,  and  unconsciously  pursuing  the  train  of 
thought  which  he  had  been  enforcing  in  the  Senate,  pointed  to  the 
planet  and  said — "'Night  unto  night  showeth  knowledge:'  take 
away  the  independent  force,  emanating  from  the  hand  of  the  Su- 

Ereme,  which  impels  that  planet  onward,  and  it  would  plunge  in 
ideous  ruin   from  those,  beautiful  skies  unto  the  sun  ;  takeaway 
the  central  attraction  of  the  sun,  and  the  attendant  planet  would 
shoot  madly  from  its  sphere ;  urged  and  restrained  by  the  balanced 
forces,  it  wheels  its  eternal  circles  through  the  heavens." 

HE   CONTEMPLATES    A    WOKK    ON    THE    CONSTITUTION. 

His  reverence  for  the  Constitution  led  him  to  meditate  a  work 
in  which  the  history  of  its  formation  and  adoption  should  he  traced, 
its  principles  unfolded  and  explained,  its  analogies  with  other  govern 
ments  investigated,  its  expansive  fitness  to  promote  the  prosperity 
of  the  country  for  ages  yet  to  come,  developed  and  maintained. 
His  thoughts  had  long  flowed  in  this  channel.  The  subject  was 
not  only  the  one  on  which  he  had  bestowed  his  most  earnest  par 
liamentary  efforts,  but  it  formed  the  point  of  reference  of  much 
of  his  historical  and  miscellaneous  reading.  He  was  .anxious  to 
learn  what  the  experience  of  mankind  taught  on  the  subject  of 
governments  in  any  degree  resembling  our  own.  As  our  fathers, 
in  forming  the  Confederation,  and  still  more  the  members  of  the 
Convention  which  framed  the  Constitution — and  especially  Wash 
ington — studied  with  diligence  the  organization  of  all  the  former 
compacts  of  government — those  of  the  Netherlands,  of  Switzer 
land,  and  ancient  Greece, — so  Mr.  Webster  directed  special  atten 
tion  to  all  the  former  leagues  and  confederacies  of  modern  and 
ancient  times,  for  lessons  and  analogies  of  encouragement  and 
warning  to  his  countrymen.  He  dwelt  much  on  the  Amphicty- 
onic  league  of  Greece,  one  of  the  confederacies  to  which  the 
framers  of  the  Constitution  often  referred,  and  which  is  frequently 
spoken  of  as  a  species  of  federal  government.  Unhappily  for 
Greece,  it  had  little  claim  to  that  character.  Founded  originally 
on  confraternity  of  religious  rites,  it  was  expanded  in  the  lapse  of 
time  into  a  loose  political  association,  but  was  destitute  of  all  the 
powers  of  an  organized,  efficient  government.  On  this  subject  Mr. 
Webster  found  a  remark  in  Grote's  History  of  Greece,  which 
struck  him  as  being  of  extreme  significance  to  the  people  of  the 
United  States.  ''  Occasionally,"  says  Grote,  "  there  was  a  partial 
pretense  for  the  imposing  title  bestowed  upon  the  Amphictyonic 
league  by  Cicero,  '  Commune  Gra?cia3  Concilium,'  but  we  should 
completely  misinterpret  Grecian  History,  if  we  regarded  it  as  a 
federal  council  habitually  directing,  or  habitually  obeyed."  "  And 


204  DANIEL  WEBSTEE. 

now,"  said  Mr.  Webster,  "  comes  a  passage  which  ought  to  be  writ 
ten  in  letters  of  gold  over  the  door  of  the  Capitol  and  of  every  State 
Legislature  :  '  Had  there  existed  any  such  "  Commune  Concilium" 
of  tolerable  wisdom  and  patriotism,  and  had  the  tendencies  of  the 
Hellenic  mind  been  capable  of  adapting  themselves  to  it,  the  whole 
course  of  later  Grecian  History  would  probably  have  been  altered  ; 
the  Macedonian  kings  would  have  remained  only  as  respectable 
neighbors,  borrowing  their  civilization  from  Greece,  and  exercising 
their  military  energies  upon  Thracians  and  Illyrians ;  while  united 
Hellas  might  have  maintained  her  own  territory  against  the  con 
quering  legions  of  Rome.'  "  *  A  wise  and  patriotic  federal  gov 
ernment  would  have  preserved  Greece  from  the  Macedonian 
phalanx  and  the  Roman  legions! 

Professional  and  official  labors  engrossed  Mr.  Webster's  time 
and  left  him  no  leisure  for  the  execution  of  his  meditated  work 
on  the  Constitution — a  theme  which,  as  he  would  have  treated  it, 
tracing  it  back  to  its  historical  fountains  and  forward  to  its  pro 
phetic  issues,  seems  to  me,  in  the  wide  range  of  its  topics,  to 
embrace  higher  and  richer  elements  of  thought,  for  the  American 
statesman  and  patriot,  than  any  other  not  directly  connected  with 
the  spiritual  welfare  of  man. 

MAGNITUDE   OF   THE   THEME.      THE   FUTUKE  OF   THE   UNION. 

What  else  is  there,  in  the  material  system  of  the  world,  so  won 
derful  as  the  concealment  of  the  Western  Hemisphere  for  ages 
behind  the  mighty  vail  of  waters  ?  How  could  such  a  secret  be 
kept  from  the  foundation  of  the  world  till  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 
century?  What  so  astonishing  as  the  concurrence,  within  less 
than  a  century,  of  the  invention  of  printing,  the  demonstration 
of  the  true  system  of  the  Heavens,  and  this  great-world  discovery? 
What  so  mysterious  as  the  dissociation  of  the  native  tribes  of  this 
continent  from  the  civilized  and  civilizable  races  of  man  ?  What 
so  remarkable,  in  political  history,  as  the  operation  of  the  in 
fluences — now  in  conflict,  now  in  harmony — under  which  the 
various  nations  of  the  Old  World  sent  their  children  to  occupy 
the  New ;  great  populations  silently  stealing  into  existence ;  the 
wilderness  of  one  century  swarming  in  the  next  with  millions; 
ascending  the  streams,  crossing  the  mountains,  struggling  with  a 
wild,  hard  nature,  with  savage  foes,  with  rival  settlements  of  for 
eign  powers,  but  ever  onward,  onward  ?  What  so  propitious 
as  this  long  colonial  training  in  the  school  of  chartered  govern 
ment  ;  and  then,  when  the  fullness  of  time  had  come,  what  so 
majestic,  amid  all  its  vicissitudes  and  all  its  trials,  as  the  Grand 
Separation — mutually  beneficial  in  its  final  result  to  both  parties — 
the  dread  appeal  to  arms,  that  venerable  Continental  Congress, 
the  august  Declaration,  the  strange  alliance  of  the  oldest  monarchy 

*  Grote'a  History  of  Greece,  Yol.  ii.  p.  886. 


DANIEL  WEBSTER.  205 

of  Europe  with  the  Infant  Republic?  And,  lastly,  what  so 
worthy  the  admiration  of  men  and  angels  as  the  appearance  of 
him  the  expected  ;  him  the  Hero,  raised  up  to  conduct  the  mo 
mentous  contliot  to  its  auspicious  issue  in  the  Confederation,  the 
Union,  the  Constitution ! 

Is  this  a  theme  not  unworthy  of  the  pen  and  the  mind  of  Web 
ster?  Then  consider  the  growth  of  the  country,  thus  politically 
inhered  into  existence  and  organized  under  that  Constitution,  as 
delineated  in  his  address  on  laying  the  corner-stone  of  the  ex 
tension  of  the  Capitol;  the  thirteen  colonies  that  accomplished 
the  Revolution  multiplied  to  thirty-two  independent  States,  a  single 
one  of  them  exceeding  in  population  the  old  thirteen;  the  narrow 
border  of  settlement  along  the  coast,  fenced  in  by  France  and  the 
native  tribes,  expanded  to  the  dimensions  of  the  continent; 
Louisiana,  Florida,  Texas,  New  Mexico,  California,  Oregon— ter 
ritories  equal  to  the  great  monarchies  of  Europe — added  to  the 
Union ;  and  the  two  millions  of  population  which  fired  the  imagin 
ation  of  Burke,  swelled  to  twenty-four  millions  during  the  lifetime 
of  Mr.  Webster,  and  in  seven  short  years,  which  have  since 
elapsed,  increased  to  thirty  ! 

With  these  stupendous  results  in  his  own  time  as  the  unit  of 
calculation — beholding  under  Providence  with  each  Decade  of 
years,  a  new  people,  millions  strong,  emigrants  in  part  from  the 
Old  World,  but  mainly  bone  of  our  bone,  and  flesh  of  our  liesh, 
the  children  of  the  soil,  growing  up  to  inhabit  the  waste  places  of 
the  continent,  to  inherit  and  transmit  the  rights  and  blessings 
which  we  have  received  from  our  fathers ;  recognizing  in  the 
Constitution  and  in  the  Union  established  by  it  the  creative  in 
fluence  which,  as  far  as  human  agencies  go,  has  wrought  these 
miracles  of  growth  and  progress,  and  which  wraps  up  in  sacred 
reserve  the  expansive  energy  with  which  the  work  is  to  be  carried 
on  and  perfected,  he  looked  forward  with  patriotic  aspiration  to 
the  time  when,  beneath  its  aegis,  the  whole  wealth  of  our  civil 
ization  would  be  poured  out,  not  only  to  fill  up  the  broad  inter 
stices  of  settlement,  if  I  may  so  express  myself,  in  the  old  thirteen, 
and  their  young  and  thriving  sister  States  already  organized  in 
the  West,  but  in  the  lapse  of  time,  to  found  a  hundred  ne\v  repub 
lics  in  the  valley  of  the  Missouri  and  beyond  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
till  our  letters  and  our  arts,  our  schools  and  our  churches,  our  laws 
and  our  liberties,  shall  be  carried  from  the  arctic  circle  to  the 
tropics ;  "  from  the  rising  of  the  sun  to  the  going  down  thereof." 

VIEWS    OF   THE   PRE9EXT. 

This  prophetic  glance,  not  merely  at  the  impending,  but  the  dis 
tant  future,  this  reliance  on  the  fulfillment  of  the  great  design  of 
Providence,  illustrated  through  our  whole  history,  to  lavish  upon 
the  people  of  this  country  the  accumulated  blessings  of  all  former 
stages  of  human  progress,  made  him  more  tolerant  of  the  tardy 


206  DANIEL  WEBSTER, 

and  irregular  advances  and  temporary  wanderings  from  the  path  of 
what  he  deemed  a  wise  and  sound  policy  than  those  fervid  spirits 
who  dwell  exclusively  in  the  present,  and  make  less  allowance  for 
the  gradual  operation  of  moral  influences.  This  was  the  case  in 
reference  to  the  great  sectional  controversy  which  now  so  sharply 
divides  and  so  violently  agitates  the  country.  He  not  only  confi 
dently  anticipated  what  the  lapse  of  seven  years  since  his  decease 
has  witnessed  and  is  witnessing,  that  the  newly-acquired  and  the 
newly-organized  territories  of  the  Union  would  grow  up  into  free 
States ;  but,  in  common  with  all  or  nearly  ah1  the  statesmen  of  the 
last  generation,  he  believed  that  free  labor  would  ultimately  pre 
vail  throughout  the  country.  He  thought  he  saw  that  in  the 
operation  of  the  same  causes  which  have  produced  this  result  in 
the  Middle  and  Eastern  States,  it  was  visibly  taking  place  in  the 
States  north  of  the  cotton-growing  region  ;  and  he  inclined  to  the 
opinion  that  there  also,  under  the  influence  of  physical  and  eco 
nomical  causes,  free  labor  would  eventually  be  found  most  produc 
tive,  and  would  therefore  be  ultimately  established. 

For  these  reasons,  bearing  in  mind,  what  all  admit,  that  the  com 
plete  solution  of  the  mighty  problem,  which  now  so  greatly  tasks 
the  prudence  and  patriotism  of  the  wisest  and  best  in  the  land,  is 
beyond  the  delegated  powers  of  the  General  Government ;  that  it 
depends,  as  far  as  the  States  are  concerned,  on  their  independent 
legislation,  and  that  it  is,  of  all  others,  a  subject  in  reference  to 
which  public  opinion  and  public  sentiment  will  most  powerfully 
influence  the  law  ;  that  much  in  the  lapse  of  time,  without  law,  is 
likely  to  be  brought  about  by  degrees,  and  gradually  done  and  per 
mitted,  as  in  Missouri,  at  the  present  day ;  while  nothing  is  to  be 
hoped  from  external  interference,  whether  of  exhortation  or  re 
buke  •  that  in  all  human  affairs  controlled  by  self-governing  com 
munities,  extreme  opinions  and  extreme  courses,  on  the  one  hand, 
generally  lead  to  extreme  opinions  and  extreme  courses  on  the 
other ;  and  that  nothing  will  more  contribute  to  the  earliest  prac 
ticable  relief  of  the  country  from  this  most  prolific  source  of  con 
flict  and  estrangement,  than  to  prevent  its  being  introduced  into 
our  party  organizations, — he  deprecated  its  being  allowed  to  find  a 
place  among  the  political  issues  of  the  day,  North  or  South ;  and 
seeking  a  platform  on  which  honest  and  patriotic  men  might  meet 
and  stand,  he  thought  he  had  found  it,  where  our  fathers  did,  in  the 
Constitution. 

It  is  true  that,  in  interpreting  the  fundamental  law  on  this  sub 
ject,  a  diversity  of  opinion  between  the  two  sections  of  the  Union 
presents  itself.  This  has  ever  been  the  case,  first  or  last,  in  rela 
tion  to  every  great  question  which  has  divided  the  country.  It  is 
the  unfailing  incident  of  constitutions,  written  or  unwritten ;  an 
evil  to  be  dealt  with  in  good  faith,  by  prudent  and  enlightened 
men,  in  both  sections  of  the  Union,  seeking,  as  Washington  sought, 


DANIEL  WEBSTER.  207 

the  public  good,  and  giving  expression  to  the  patriotic  common- 
sense  of  the  people. 

Such,  I  have  reason  to  believe,  were  the  principles  entertained 
by  Mr.  Webster  ;  not  certainly  those  best  calculated  to  win  a  tem 
porary  popularity  in  any  part  of  the  Union,  in  times  of  passionate 
sectional  agitation,  which,  between  the  extremes  of  opinion,  leaves 
no  middle  ground  for  moderate  counsels.  If  any  one  could  have 
found  and  could  have  trodden  such  ground  with  success,  he  would 
seem  to  have  been  qualified  to  do  it,  by  his  transcendent  talent,  his 
mature  experience,  his  approved  temper  and  calmness,  and  his 
tried  patriotism.  If  he  failed  of  finding  such  a  path  for  himself  or 
the  country — while  we  thoughtfully  await  what  time  and  an  all- 
i'rovidence  has  in  store  for  ourselves  and  our  children — let  ns 
remember  that  his  attempt  was  the  highest  and  the  purest  which 
can  engage  the  thoughts  of  a  Statesman  and  a  Patriot :  Peace  on 
earth,  good-will  toward  men  ;  harmony  and  brotherly  love  among 
the  children  of  our  common  country. 

And  O,  my  friends,  if  among  those  who,  differing  from  him  on 
this  or  any  other  subject,  have  yet,  with  generous  forgetfulness  of 
that  which  separated  you,  and  kindly  remembrance  of  all  that  you 
held  in  common,  come  up  this  day  to  do  honor  to  his  memory, 
there  are  any  who  suppose  that  he  cherished  less  tenderly  than 
yourselves  the  great  ideas  of  Liberty,  Humanity,  and  Brotherhood  ; 
that,  because  he  was  faithful  to  the  duties  which  he  inferred  from 
the  Constitution  and  the  Law,  to  which  he  looked  for  the  govern 
ment  of  Civil  Society,  he  was  less  sensible  than  yourselves  to  the 
broader  relations  and  deeper  sympathies  which  unite  us  to  our 
fellow-creatures,  as  brethren  of  one  family  and  children  of  one 
heavenly  Father,  believe  me,  you  do  his  memory  a  grievous  wrong. 

PERSONAL   CHARACTER. 

This  is  not  the  occasion  to  dwell  upon  the  personal  character  of 
Mr.  Webster,  on  the  fascination  of  his  social  intercourse,  or  the 
charm  of  his  domestic  life.  Something  I  could  have  said  on  his 
Companionable  disposition  and  habits,  his  genial  temper,  the  re 
sources  and  attractions  of  his  conversation,  his  love  of  nature, 
alike  in  her  wild  and  cultivated  aspects,  and  his  keen  perception 
of  the  beauties  of  this  fair  world  in  which  we  live ;  something  of 
his  devotion  to  agricultural  pursuits,  which,  next  to  his  profes 
sional  and  public  duties,  formed  the  occupation  of  his  life ;  some 
thing  of  his  fondness  for  athletic  and  manly  sports  and  exercise-; 
something  of  his  friendships,  and  of  his  attachments  warmer  than 
friendships — the  son,  the  brother,  the  husband,  and  the  father; 
something  of  the  joys  and  the  sorrows  of  his  home  ;  of  the  strength 
of  his  religious  convictions,  his  testimony  to  the  truth  of  the 
Christian  Revelation;  the  tenderness  and  sublimity  of  the  parting 
scene.  Something  on  these  topics  I  have  elsewhere  said,  and  may 
not  here  repeat. 


208  DANIEL  WEBSTEE. 

Some  other  things,  my  friends,  with  your  indulgence,  I  would 
say;  thoughts,  memories,  which  crowd  upon,  me,  too  vivid  to  be 
repressed,  too  personal  almost  to  be  uttered. 

On  the  17th  of  July,  1804,  a  young  man  from  New  Hampshire 
arrived  in  Boston,  all  but  penniless,  and  all  but  friendless.  He 
was  twenty -two  years  of  age,  and  had  come  to  take  the  first  steps 
in  the  career  of  life  at  the  capital  of  New  England.  Three  days 
after  arriving  in  Boston  he  presented  himself,  without  letters  of 
recommendation,  to  Mr.  Christopher  Gore,  then  just  returned  from 
England,  after  an  official  residence  of  some  years,  and  solicited  a 
place  in  his  office  as  a  clerk.  His  only  introduction  was  by  a  young 
man  as  little  known  to  Mr.  Gore  as  himself,  and  who  went  to  pro 
nounce  his  name,  which  he  did  so  indistinctly  as  not  to  be  heard. 
His  slender  figure,  striking  countenance,  large  dark  eye,  and  massy 
brow,  his  general  appearance  indicating  a  delicate  organization,* 
his  manly  carriage  and  modest  demeanor,  arrested  attention  and 
inspired  confidence.  His  humble  suit  was  granted,  he  was  received 
into  the  office,  and  had  been  there  a  week  before  Mr.  Gore  learned 
that  his  name  was  DANIEL  WEBSTER!  His  older  brother — older 
in  years,  but  later  in  entering  life — (for  whose  education  Daniel, 
while  teacher  of  the"  Academy  at  Fryeburg,  had  drudged  till  mid 
night  in  the  office  of  the  Register  of  Deeds),  at  that  time  taught  a 
small  school  in  Short  Street  (now  Kingston  Street),  in  Boston,  and 
while  he  was  in  attendance  at  the  commencement  at  Dartmouth, 
in  1804,  to  receive  his  degree,  Daniel  supplied  hi's  place.  At  that 
school,  at  the  age  often,  I  was  then  a  pupil,  and  there  commenced 
a  friendship  which  lasted,  without  interruption  or  chill,  while  his 
life  lasted ;  of  which,  while  mine  lasts,  the  grateful  recollection  will 
never  perish.  From  that  time  forward  I  knew,  I  honored,  I  loved 
him.  I  saw  him  at  all  seasons  and  on  all  occasions,  in  the  flush 
of  public  triumph,  in  the  intimacy  of  the  fireside,  in  the  most  unre 
served  interchange  of  personal  confidence ;  in  health  and  in  sick 
ness,  in  sorrow  and  in  joy ;  when  early  honors  began  to  wreath  his 
brow,  and  in  after  life  through  most  of  the  important  scenes  of  his 
public  career.  I  saw  him  on  occasions  th-at  show  the  manly 
strength,  and,  what  is  better,  the  manly  weakness  of  the  human 
heart ;  and  I  declare  this  day,  in  the  presence  of  Heaven  and  of 
men,  that  I  never  heard  from  him  the  expression  of  a  wish  unbe 
coming  a  good  citizen  and  a  patriot — the  utterance  of  word  unwor 
thy  a  gentleman  and  a  Christian ;  that  I  never  knew  a  more  gen 
erous  spirit,  a  safer  adviser,  a  warmer  friend. 

Do  you  ask  me  if  he  had  faults?  I  answer,  he  was  a  man.  He 
had  some  of  the  faults  of  a  lofty  spirit,  a  genial  temperament,  and 
a  warm  and  generous  nature ;  he  had  none  of  the  faults  of  a  grov 
eling,  mean,  and  malignant  nature.  He  had  especially  the  "last 


*  Description  by  Mrs.  Eliza  Buckminstcr  Leo,  Webster's  Private  Correspond 
ence,  i.,  438. 


DANIEL  WEBSTER.  209 

infirmity  of  noble  mind,''  and  hud  no  doubt  raised  an  aspiring  eye 
to  the  highest  object  of  political  ambition.  But  he  did  it  in  the 
honest  pride  of  a  capacity  i/qual  to  the  station,  and  with  a  con«- 
sciousness  that  he  should  reflect  back  the  honor  which  it  conferred. 
He  might  sny,  with  Burke,  that  "he  had  no  arts  but  honest  arts;'' 
and  if  he  sought  the  highest  honors  of  the  state,  he  did  it  by  trans 
cendent  talent,  laborious  service,  and  patriotic  devotion  to  the 
public  good. 

It  was  not  given  to  him,  any  more  than  to  the  other  members 
of  the  great  triumvirate  with  whom  his  name  is  habitually  associ 
ated,  to  attain  the  object  of  their  ambition ;  but  posterity  will  do 
them  justice,  and  begins  already  to  discharge  the  debt  of  respect 
and  gratitude.  A  noble  mausoleum  in  honor  of  Clay,  and  his  statue 
by  Hart,  are  in  progress ;  the  statue  of  Calhoun,  by  Powers,  adorns 
the  Court  House  in  Charleston,  and  a  magnificent  monument  to  his 
memory  is  in  preparation ;  and  we  present  you  this  day,  fellow- 
citizens,  the  Statue  of  Webster,  in  enduring  bronze,  on  a  pedestal 
of  granite  from  his  native  State,  the  noble  countenance  modeled 
from  life,  at  the  meridian  of  his  days  and  his  fame,  and  his  person 
reproduced,  from  faithful  recollection,  by  the  oldest  and  most  dis 
tinguished  of  the  living  artists  of  the  country.  He  sleeps  by  the 
multitudinous  ocean,  which  he  himself  so  much  resembled  in  its 
mighty  movement  and  its  mighty  repose ;  but  his  monumental  form 
shall  henceforward. stand  sentry  at  the  portals  of  the  Capitol;  the 
right  hand  pointing  to  that  symbol  of  the  Union  on  which  the  left 
reposes,  and  his  imperial  gaze  directed,  with  the  Hopes  of  the  coun 
try,  to  the  boundless  West.  In  a  few  short  years,  we,  whose  eyes 
have  rested  on  his  majestic  person,  whose  ears  have  drunk  in  the 
music  of  his  clarion  voice,  shall  have  gone  to  our  rest;  but  our 
children,  for  ages  to  come,  as  they  dwell  with  awe-struck  gaze  upon 
the  monumental  bronze,  shall  say,  Oh  that  we  could  have  seen,  oh 
that  we  could  have  heard,  the  great  original! 

Two  hundred  and  twenty-nine  years  ago,  this  day,  our  beloved 
city  received,  from  the  General  Court  of  the  Colony,  the  honored 
name  of  Boston.  On  the  long  roll  of  those  whom  she  has  welcom 
ed  to  her  nurturing  bosom  is  there  a  name  which  shines  with  a 
brighter  luster  than  his  ?  Seventy-two  years  ago,  this  day,  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  tendered  to  the  acceptance 
of  the  people  by  George  Washington.  Who,  of  all  the  gifted  and 
patriotic  of  the  land,  that  have  adorned  the  interval,  has  done 
more  to  unfold  its  principles,  assert  its  purity,  and  to  promote  its 
duration  ? 

Here,  then,  under  the  cope  of  Heaven ;  here,  on  this  lovely  em 
inence  ;  here,  beneath  the  walls  of  the  Capitol  of  old  Massachusetts, 
here,  within  the  sight  of  those  fair  New  England  villages ;  here,  in 
the  near  vicinity  of  the  graves  of  those  who  planted  the  germs  of 
all  this  palmy  growth ;  here,  within  the  sound  of  sacred  bells,  we 
raise  this  monument,  with  loving  hearts,  to  the  Statesman,  the 


210  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

Patriot,  the  Fellow-Citizen,  the  Neighbor,  the  Friend.  Long  may 
it  guard  the  approach  to  these  halls  of  council ;  long  may  it  look 
out  upon  a  prosperous  country ;  and,  if  days  of  trial  and  disaster 
should  come,  and  the  arm  of  flesh  should  fail,  doubt  not  that  the 
monumental  form  would  descend  from  its  pedestal,  to  stand  in  the 
front  rank  of  the  peril,  and  the  bronze  lips  repeat  the  cry  of  the 
living  voice — "  Liberty  and  Union,  now  and  forever,  one  and  in 
separable!" 


HENRY    WARD    BEECHER'S 
?.  SERMONS      -;.•; 

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Messrs.  CHICKER1NG  &  SONS  have  been  awarded  38  Prize 
Medals,  for  tlie  superiority  of  their  maim  fact  lire,  exhibited  by 
them  at  the  different  Fairs  in  this  country  and  in  Europe,  during 
the  past  35  years. 


EIICKI1IIC  &  Ml, 


OF 


e> 


Warerooms,   No.  694   Broadway,   New   York. 


ALSO   FOR  SALE,  AT  WHOLESALE  &  RETAIL, 


Organ  Melodeoiis  and  Organ  Harmoniums, 

IF'a/r  lours,    OlnjLZ-olies,   "Vestirioes   a,:n.c2- 


Following  Testimonials  to  the  merits  of  the  Piano-Fortes  of  CHICKERING  & 
SONS  have  been  unhesitatingly  given  by  M.  THALBERG. 


Mnxs  HOUSE,  Charleston,  S.  C. , 

February  2d,  1858. 
Messrs.  J.  Sicgling  &  Son  : 

Gentlemen, — I  can  only  repeat 
that  which  has  been  said  so  often 
by  others,  (as  well  as  myself,) 
that  I  consider  the  Chickering  is 
Sons  Pianos  far  beyond  compari 
son,  the  BEST  I  have  ever  seen  in 
America;  and  I  am  also  happy  to 
add,  that  they  are  quite  fortunate 
in  being  so  ably  represented  in 
tho  South,  by  so  respectable  a 
house  as  that  of  J.  Siegling  &  Sou. 
Yours  Respectfully, 

S.  THALBERG. 


PrrsmiRGH,  March  25th,  1858. 

Mr.  Mel  lor,— Dear  Sir  :  Since 
my  arrival  in  America  I  have  con 
stantly  used  the  Pianos  of  Messrs. 
Chickoring  &  Sons,  and  I  can  only 
repeat  to  you  (while  thanking  you 
for  tho  Pianos  you  have  so  kindly 
furnished  for  my  concerts  here,) 
that  which  I  have  so  often  said  be 
fore — the  instruments  aro  tho 
best  I  have  seen  in  the  United 
States,  and  will  compare  favora 
bly  with  any  I  have  ever  known. 
Yours,  Very  Truly, 

S.  TIIALBERG. 


\tv  TV«    c-  RICHMOND,  VA.,  January  14,  1858. 

_M»£?  ffi>Jcr>'~~1  Messrs.  CHICKERIXG  &  So.vs'  Square  Piano-Fortes,  and  I  have  much  pleasure  la 

certifying  that  there  are  no  superior  instrument*  in  this  country  or  in  Europe. 

r1D,  Yours,  Very  Truly, 

S.  THALBERG,  Exchange  Hotel. 


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irefully 


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